The Fox of Mystery
by Timeclue21
Summary: Naruto is an enigma, on the day of Itachi's genocide he went from dead last to top of class and never told any one why or how. Only accrediting the work to 'his sensei'. A story about Naruto, shrouded in mystery and ready to become the shinobi he was destined to become \ Naruto based Kakashi \ Smart/realistic Naruto \ Naru/Haku \ FEMHAKU! \ enjoy! Now with beta!
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Welcome, I'm so sorry for deleting every prior to this but it was never anything I could write down and stay with. They were all 'oh that sounds good' and after the first chapter nothing came to my mind that would work. This time, I have everything planed out I'm sticking to my script and im going to finish this. That I promise you.

Disclaimer on profile page

Enjoy!

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Naruto was bored. It was 3 hours after Umino Iruka had left the classroom, informing the last remaining students that their sensei, Hatake Kakashi, would arrive somewhere around this time. Each of the copy-nin's prospective students had spent the last few hours doing their own things.

Haruno Sakura had spent the time pestering the 'last' Uchiha. A phrase Naruto still got a kick out of. He wasn't the only one left, the eldest brother was still alive, out there somewhere. And if you knew what Naruto knew, witch little if anyone did, there was another one or two out there as well maybe more.

Speaking of the Uchihas, Sasuke, the resident duck-head, had spent the entirety of the time thinking about hatred, his brother, and revenge. Personally Naruto believed to be an arrogant prick. The kid was also jealous of Naruto. When Sasuke left the academy for a few weeks after the genocide of his clan Naruto had, almost out of nowhere, gone from being the Dobe to Top of Class. And only in book work and written testing did the young Uchiha surpass Naruto. Not that they mattered in the real world, maybe in round one of Konoha's Chunin Exams, but that was just one of the many things Naruto wasn't supposed to know about that. To bad for them but his Sensei had drilled into his head one thing above the rest. Information is worth more than a hundred times it's weight in gold, and Naruto always followed that ideal as if it was a religion.

Speaking of Naruto, he himself had spent the time working, he had spent about two hours sharpening his equipment, an old ninjato that his sensei had given him, along with his kunai and shuriken. After he had all his blades sharp and put away in his holsters, his scabbard went diagonally across his back the handle of his ninjato coming up over his right shoulder showing of that Naruto was left handed. The scabbard was held in place by a chain instead of a strap, dual pouches sat on each side of his upper legs. His duo kunai holsters were under them. Crimson colored bandages were the only thing keeping the various holsters from coming in contact with his pants. Naruto had on metal plated geta saddles, black pants and a crimson kimono-style shirt with black trim, without sleeves. The shirt was held closed with a grey ob. Underneath he had on a mesh shirt, also without sleeves. His hitai-ate was tied around left arm, the dark blue cloth replaced with a dark grey band. His left eye was covered with his signature eye patch, black with the Uzumaki clan emblem in its center.

The last hour, Naruto had spent going over a scroll he had taken from the shinobi library, a technique made famous by the Snake Sannin, Orochimaru. The **Kanashibari no justu (Temporary Paralysis Technique), **which was quite powerful. The ability to paralysis an enemy with just a few hand signs and eye contact, as if they had been tied up with steel cable, would be quite useful. The surprise that a mere 'Genin' knew it would have a lot to do with the successful use of it. Seeing as that it was simple to break out of, if you knew what had happened to you. Some of the stronger ninja throughout the world could just shrug it off as if the attack had never happened.

This was the scene that Hatake Kakashi had walked into, a fan girl pestering the emo, and his supposed mini-me poring over a scroll. He noticed that only Naruto had reacted to his presence. He had slightly moved his hand, almost unnoticed due to his speed. If the scarecrow look alike hadn't been briefed by the Sandaime before, he would have been surprised by what Naruto had just done. Which was basicly saying, 'What are your orders' in the basic form of ANBU sign language. The style was taught to the rookies to get then accustomed to the vast array of combinations that allowed ANBU to converse in complete silence. Now while he wasn't surprised he was impressed.

In order to not be bothered by the council and the Hokage as well Naruto had agreed to write down most of what he knew, what ended up on the Hokage's desk was a medium sized scroll with a list of village secrets, all below A-rank ones, like the status of Yakumo Kurama, and a heavily detailed copy of the evacuation plans of the village. Added to the list was about 10 different Ninjustu, a few more in Genjustu, a Kenjutsu/Taijutsu hybrid, and basic Fuinjutsu skills.

But that was before Naruto's sensei had left his departing gift, almost everything that belonged to Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki. Except things that could relate her to the Yondaime and some of the higher class scrolls and items. Meaning Naruto now had access to the best reservoir of Fuinjutsu and to a much lesser extent the other popular shinobi branches, it wasn't as grand as the Sarutobi, Uchiha, or even the Hatake's library. But it was more than enough for Naruto's formation years. Naruto, as of now, was on the path to becoming a very well versed and powerful shinobi. Once again Kakashi was impressed. Maybe there was a little more truth to the whole mini-me idea after all.

It was at this moment that the other two noticed that their sensei had arrived. And just before Sakura could prove that she was indeed a Haruno and not just a girl with pink hair, two sebon needles went flying across the room. They lodged themselves in just the right spot on Sakura's neck to silence but other wise not harm the girl. Did Kakashi mention that he was impressed with his blonde student? If not well, color him impressed. Sasuke must have seen Naruto throw the needles for he didn't look too shocked, but if you looked closely enough and knew what to look for, the boy was relieved, almost thankful.

In Sasuke's eyes, he now had a use for Naruto, get him to teach him how he just silenced the fan girl. Too bad his arrogance would never allow him to ask someone for help who he thought was below him, which was almost everyone. After all no one could be equal to the noble and divine… yes the divine Uchiha clan, the closest anyone could ever come to being a god was to be an Uchiha, No one else could come even remotely as close. Such were the thoughts of the Uchiha avenger.

"Thanks for saving our hearing, but please take the sebon needles out of her neck so we can get a move on. Now normally we would move somewhere for this, but hey, why not save some time and just do it here. And would you look at that everyone left already, how convenient." Kakashi said, complete with a signature eye smile.

Naruto didn't bother to get up, sending out a pair of chakra strings, helpful for all ninja to know even though most Genin thought that they only had a use in Suna's puppet corps. A common misconception and yet another thing Kakashi would have been surprised about the chibi-copy nin, a name Kakashi liked more and more now that he was being to get to know the blonde, being able to use.

Sebon needles back on Naruto's person, the elder Cyclops begin the customary meet and great, some evasion and dramatic pauses later, and you had two Genin prospects only knowing the guy's name and the other learning nothing new, that being said he knew exactly who this man was.

His sensei had a lot of sayings, the play that the man had just put on reminded the blonde of just how he knew about the elder of the two Cyclopses of Konoha; "_the chances of running into strong opponents was very high in the field, and most of the best can be found in the wonderful book of secrets and knowledge know as the bingo book, with such a goldmine of information, why not take advantage of it eh, Naruto?"_ not something special but important none the less. His sensei's words had led to Naruto reading and self testing himself on the bingo book trying to remember enough to get by as well as keeping an up to date book on him in one of the many seals on his person, either on his body, his clothing or pouches.

It had seemed that by the time Naruto had come back down to earth, the other two were done, he didn't really remember what they said but his subconscious had picked up enough to know that they were still the same as they always had been, the fan girl and the emo. It seemed it was his turn. 'Well time to make a good impression on a man who could take him places no one else could.' Speaking out just before Sakura got the chance to activate her 'screech release' as our blonde hero had so aptly named it.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, my likes are Fuuinjutsu, swords, and learning all things ninja. My dislikes are any waste of talent and potential as well as the majority of this village. My hope is to grow to my full potential, and then surpass that limit time and time again. As for my dream, my dream is to become one of Konoha's top ninja."

No one made a comment on it seeing as Naruto's teammates didn't really pay attention to him. Sasuke not caring on his inferior male teammate, and Sakura not caring about anything that wasn't Uchiha Sasuke. But Kakashi was listening and the seeds had been planted. Kakashi would help Naruto out, instead of ignoring him for the Uchiha, that kid wasn't Obito's heir, The second most famous Hatake could already tell that to be the case, the heir of his friends will, the person he was looking for these past 10 years to teach was right here in front of him. And hey, who knows? Maybe there was a sharingan under that patch of his to really cement him as Kakashi's mini-me.

Actually now that he thought about it, not even the Sandaime had ask about what was under there. Saving the question for later, he informed the three kids about the bell test. The no eating breakfast rule, the 66% failure rate, where to be and at what time, so on and so forth. Then in a swirl of leaves that came from nowhere, he left to make his preliminary report to the Hokage, and to see if he could dig up any other information on the blonde gaki.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The meeting went by fast, some of the Jounin complained about depressed fan girls, some were happy about who they had, none more so than the new Jounin, Yuhi Kurenai. People were impressed when he arrived on time, and more so when he said that his team would be a good one, especially one of them in particular. Most people thought it was Sasuke, but some thought Naruto… sadly most thought in a negative light, including yet again, Yuhi Kurenai. It was easy to see why, her father had died during the kyuubi's attack. And even though she didn't see Naruto as the fox, she hated the boy with a passion. Only her motherly affection of Hinata kept her from being more active. If he was a hyperactive, orange wearing idiot without a hope of becoming a threat anytime soon, maybe she could change. But the boy was powerful, and if the fox ever took over it wouldn't be easy to take out a super strong ninja going on a rampage with the power of the fox at his disposal.

If only she knew how close to the truth that statement would become in the coming months.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Naruto showed up at training ground 7, home of team 7, since the founding of the academy until today. Training ground seven had been the birthplace of the Densetus no Sannin, where Namikaze Minato and Kakashi himself became a ninja, and now it was Naruto's turn.

At 5 am, 2 hours before the scheduled time to arrive, as well as a full 5 hours before Kakashi was due to arrive, he knew that and came early so that he could get some training in.

He proceeded to set up seals around the training ground. The seal was a unique fuuinjutsu created by the Uzumaki clan some ages ago and updated by his mother. It included anti-chakra sensory, silencing, blinding, and various other seals made to trick someone into thinking no one was there. The first layer was a perimeter, about 100 yards out, that just told you that something was passing through it via a soft glowing of a corresponding seal. The second one, 50 yards out from the center, had all the other effects, including negating the presence while actively using the Kyuubi's chakra up until the first tailed state was unleashed. At that point, Naruto couldn't cover up the sheer presence of the Kyuubi's chakra. He was good at Fuuinjutsu, he had the Uzumaki affinity for it and all, but he was no super genius… by his standards at least. If the mass's standards said something, their great was his not so bad, their amazing was a decent, and their genius was his good. It was a mindset that drove him to be greater, stronger, better, and improve himself in any and every way, that was his goal. If he completed it, he would be a good contender for the Hokage position but he knew that many things would have to change if that were to be a possibility.

It was once his dream as a child and he still held onto that hope in the back of his heart and mind. But as he grew up he took on a more realistic mind set, and the truth was while he had the support of a few clans, most of the elite ninja and obviously the Sandaime. His choices were limited, and with the Sandaime only having at most 10 years left in him before he couldn't be the Hokage anymore and add that to Naruto not knowing any high powered ninja on a direct level and you had a very limited chance of that particular dream coming true.

Getting back into focus, Naruto drew his ninjato, and began to go through the Kata he was working on mastering. It was part of the Uzumaki Royal family style: Arashinome no Mai( Dance of the Storm's Eye). It was a sword style based off deception. As the scroll had stated, remembering the words that had guided him during the last few months.

'_As a storm's eye is not truly the peace, the calm, the end. So too should your dance be. The storms strongest point leads off at the edge of the eye, strong, ferocious, powerful cuts, stabs, and swings._

_As the eye arrives you moves are calm and fluid, your goal is not to strike but to tire out your opponent. Fast and quick you strike at your foe's body, keeping him from controlling the fight, but allowing him to use up his power._

_And then as the eye passes, the fire is relit, back to its full glory and power, you go from trickery and evasion into an even stronger assault than before. The blade seems to be coming in form all directions at once.'_

Naruto's own mother was a master at this dance, it was what placed her in the bingo book, a bounty of 45 million ryo straight out of Kumogakure no Sato's treasury. And that was without using the Kyuubi's chakra for more than its passive abilities; such as healing, expanding the Uzumaki's already larger than average reserves, improving the jinchuriki's senses, and Naruto's personal favorite, access to Kyuubi's menacing killing intent (KI). The latter 3 all took training, obviously, but that was just an enhancement to 'human' stuff and things in it's most basic form.

For 3 hours, Naruto worked on his sword play. When he was pleased by his labor he took down the seals he had set up, taking another 15 minutes up before heading to the next clearing over. This clearing had three larges logs impregnated into the ground and sitting at the base of two of them were Naruto's prospective teammates. Naruto jumped and landed on the third log and began to meditate.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Just under two hours later Kakashi arrived. Naruto exited his meditative state when Sakura once again proved her Haruno heritage informing Kakashi of his tardiness. Said man went over the test rules and when Sasuke and Sakura's stomachs rumbled, Naruto was glad that he had missed the advice to not eat breakfast. Not that he would have taken that advice anyway. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day and he was no fangirl on a diet, no he most certainly was not.

The test began and the two Genin hopefuls that had names starting with the letter S ran for cover, the 3rd one however merely drew his ninjato and dropped into a stance.

Knees bent, left side forward, and his weight transferred onto his back foot. He was perpendicular to his opponent with his left arm outstretched palm facing away from him. His sword was held in his right hand, elbow pointed behind him and the tip of his sword pointed at the back of his right hand. Kakashi drew a kunai, reinforcing it with some chakra so Naruto didn't slash it in half with one swing, they began the match, raging on in a battle of sparks, slashes, cuts, and stabs until the 'eye's arrival' Kata first of the middle part of Naruto's Arashinome no Mai( Dance of the Storm's Eye) style began. Naruto flipped back and a few hand seals later used the Kanashibari no justu.

The newest in his collection playing a pivotal role in his plan, he rushed in full speed and slashed at Kakashi's hip, actually managing to cut the bell's off the man's pants. But it was not enough and Kakashi grabbed the boy before the boy got more than his blade on the bells and sent him flying into the woods.

Kakashi spent the next ten or so minutes to drag the duck into the ground and scare the girl into unconsciousness with illusions. The Copy-nin then returned to his clearing, but sent a shadow clone to find Naruto. When it dispelled, he found out said blonde had gathered his teammates for a group attack using a simple plan; Naruto cuts the bells, Sakura grabs the bells, and Sasuke covers the retreat. They then moved out.

A few moments later and they sprung into action, Naruto rushed in sword in hand for round two, and Sakura prepared for an opening. Kakashi let it happen wanting to see this play out. The bells were cut for the second time that day and Sakura went to move in and Sasuke went in too. But just as the pinkette was going to grab the bells, the raven haired boy shoved her forwarded, straight into the copy-nin and grabbed the two bells. But that was before Naruto appeared with Sakura under one arm, he grabbed the other boy with his left and used a sealless Shunshin no justu. Retreating with the two into the woods, but more importantly, away from their prospective sensei.

The bells jingled a little as they hit the ground.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

"What the hell was that!" screamed the blonde pissed off wasn't nearly strong enough to describe what he was feeling at the moment. The entire plan was just ruined.

"I don't need any help getting those bells, so why don't you just get out of my way," Sasuke stated arrogantly.

"YEAH, SASUKE-KUN DOESN'T NEED ANYONES HELP!" Sakura screamed.

This would have gone on if not for the sound of an alarm clock going off. Only one word came to mind in Naruto's head, Fuck.

A few moment later, the three moved back into the clearing and there stood the scarecrow, looking disappointingly at the trio.

"Well that was just sad. Be back here in three hours, I need to speak with the Hokage about something," Kakashi said disappointment in his voice and with that he was gone. Soon Sasuke left with the fangirl fallowing him in hopes of getting a date.

Naruto settled into training once again, settling into work with the Arashinome no Mai, a set of movements that had nearly become meditative to the blonde. It wasn't too long until the duo of Sasuke and Sakura had returned, almost at the same time… as if they hadn't separated. It had been two and a half hours in all actuality, this kind of thing had happened a lot to Naruto. He was always losing track of time which resulted in him setting the academy record for tardiness since Uchiha Obitio was a student. Which was yet another similarity on the long list of traits shared between the two Cyclopses of the Leaf.

A half an hour later, the elder of that pair arrived. Taking in his students' appearances, he noticed how his mini-me had spent the time training, evident by the sheen of sweat on the boy's skin. Probably had been the entire time if he guessed correctly, opposed to the other two students who obviously had done next to, if not nothing, the entire time. It was the drive missing, lack of teamwork, and various other thing that had influenced his latest decision.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

(earlier at the Hokage's office, 2nd test Jounin report/review)

After writing down that team ten had passed, Hiruzen Sarutobi was about to dismiss the nine Jounin gathered in his office, not wanting to keep them for the next few hours. But surprisingly in one of the rare moments that Kakashi was on time for something, the man appeared in a poof of smoke. A round of ninjas saying a quiet "kai!" and flaring their chakra but only seeing a serious looking Kakashi did things settle down. The Third Hokage ordered the report to be given. After running through an overview of the test he had given to the prospective team 7 where afterwards the Hokage asked for his conclusion, and was surprised with the reply.

"As a team, they fail. I don't see the three of them ever getting teamwork down and together as they are now, but I don't want them all gone."

"So you want to request an apprentice?"

"Yeah, at least until the next academy round sends out two different Genin or we have some new Genin before that."

" Very well, you have your wish." said the old monkey preparing to start up the paperwork for Kakashi to fill out, it was at this moment that one of the Jounin spoke out.

"Wait Kakashi is taking the Uchiha on as a student, right? I mean, he is the only choice, there is only the Haruno, who is a lost cause by what you said and the de-" he would have contained to say this but a look from the third, almost daring him to say it, stopped him, "excuses me, the other boy is someone no one wants to be around."

"Actually, you're wrong. Lets make this formal, I, Hatake Kakashi, hereby request Uzumaki Naruto to be placed as my apprentice."

Some of the Jounin were indifferent to this. There were even less that were glad the kid had a chance to get out of the academy, but just under half were mad. The Demon was getting placed over who could very well be 'Konoha's prince'. Add to the fact that the demon would be getting individual training from the strongest ninja currently in the Leaf village that didn't wear a big white pointy hat. They felt things were not right with this picture and they planned to speak up about but the Third spoke first.

"Request accepted, and I will not be having any counter arguments. I agree wholeheartedly on this and my word is law. You may go Kakashi. Please inform the two academy students that remedial classes start on Monday and that they must improve before Konoha as a whole, and I as an individual will except them into Konoha's shinobi force. Everyone else dismissed!"

And with that, the room was cleared a second later while the Third prepared to get started on his paperwork… make that reading some Icha Icha. He had a long night ahead of him and might as well get some quality reading time in.

'… oh Yugi-chan you naughty, naughty girl hehehe…'

The Anbu hidden in the Hokage's office could only sigh, why did their comrades get to go on exciting missions while they were stuck in uncomfortable positions all day; watching an old man read porn?

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Kakashi had just arrived and called his charges into formation. Informing the three of the situation was gonna be a bitch but, hey not his fault.

"The test I gave you was based on teamwork, Naruto knew this and acted on it while you two did not act on or even know this fact. Usually this means all three of you are going back to the academy but there is one student I want to keep." The Genin looked on, all thinking of who would be staying.

"Sakura, you're going back for remedial classes starting Monday. The shinobi world is no place for fan girls. You have talent and potential, and I hope to see you unlock the full level somewhere down the line, but for now, I'm sorry, not this time. Better luck next graduation."

"Sasuke, you to will be returning to the academy as well. Yo-" "WHAT!" that was stopped by the black haired boy, obviously not wanting to hear this. His argument would have continued, but Kakashi unleashed some of his KI, this being the boy's first taste of the stuff, he was scared into silence.

"As I was saying, your lack teamwork, that you don't trust your comrades, and are much too arrogant for your own good. And I for one will not deal with that, not now, not ever. Report for remedial classes at the Academy on Monday. If you don't show, well not my issue," Kakashi finished relieved.

"That leaves you Naruto. Welcome to the world of shinobi, training starts tomorrow at 6 am. Don't be late!" and with that he was gone and not wanting to deal with the other two. Naruto fallowed his example and deployed the same justu, the Shunshin no justu, to escape the wrath of the two returning Academy students.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Naruto reappeared at his home, the 4 story apartment building that had been bought and remade into 5 floors of Naruto world. Naruto had always lived on the top floor and that still held true, floors 2 and 3 were big open spaces, his personal training area. The ground floor was a small maze, set up with traps and dead ends. It work as a training ground for infiltration as well as a deterrent for any would be assassins, angry mob of drunks, etc. There was only an 'event' of such actions once or twice in the years he owned this building but the case still held. The fifth floor was actually the roof, it was a green roof meaning it was basically a garden, there was a whole bunch of rocks and trees, nothing huge but it worked and Naruto was happy about that.

It also had a koi pond, a slab of slate was placed on one side and on the other a small shrine to Inari. A stone fox with a red votive bib sitting underneath a single, small, red Torii. This was his place of mediation. Call him cliché but he hoped that praying to the goddess of foxes amongst other things would help him in regards to the Kyuubi.

He sat down on the slate slab and making himself comfortable, he began reviewing the day before entering into formal meditation. He was a Genin now, and that was truly an accomplishment. All the years of hard work had paid off. It was enough that he didn't get dragged back down because of his teammates unwillingness to work together. He finally could say that Sensei would be proud of him; and not have to finish that statement with a 'for now.'

It was position that Naruto stayed in all night. The right mediation could take the place of sleep, especially for a ninja; for whom the line between sleep and mediation was a fine line indeed.

It was also the same picture that Kakashi found his new student. Once acknowledged by the blonde he said "Follow me" and with that the Two Cyclopses of Konoha left to start their first day of training as sensei and student.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

That concludes chapter one, hope you enjoyed and are planning on clicking the arrow bottom to move on to chapter two. Please enjoy the story.

With love,

Timeclue21

July 21st, 2012: grammar check and page brake edits


	2. Chapter 2: eternal rivals

This is chapter two, enjoy!

I updated the profile page with an enhanced summery, check it out if you want.

Edited on July 14th. Grammar and spelling fixed to the best of my horrible abilities in that department and changed something in the Neji vs. Naruto battle.

Disclaimer on profile.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Just as Sarutobi had believed and foretold, Sasuke went straight to the council. Actually the boy had walked right into the council meeting, it was just about to come to an end but he made it in time. After he 'pled his case'; which amounted to telling the council what it should do without actually saying it as if a demand. The civilian council went up in outrage, one even nearly broke the Third's law about Naruto's 'body-mate'.

Kakashi was then called in with Naruto fallowing behind which just served to piss off the council more, adding more fuel to the fire. After giving his reasons as to why he only wanted Naruto; stating that only he had the will of fire coursing through his veins and understood the concept of teamwork. Following that, the two were dismissed by the Third. They left to go back to training, as they were on the way there when they were called into the council chambers.

After much arguing and yelling, the council reached a verdict. The two Genin that were failed by Kakashi earlier that day would get a new sensei, pass the test automatically, as well as be set up with another student.

It was decided that their sensei would be a Jounin going by the name Namiashi Raido. Their teammate was Morino Idate, the younger brother of Morino Ibiki, who had been tricked into helping his sensei, Rokusho Aoi steal the Nidaime's Raijin no Ken. The boy had recently been found trying to cross into Tea Country by a hunter nin and was brought back to the village. It was only thanks to the Sandaime's generous heart that he was allowed to stay a Genin and not a resident of a unmarked grave. It also had the benefit of pleasing one of Hiruzen's most trusted ninja. In the profession that they were in, where a Shinobi could lose anyone in the blink of an eye, the Sandaime liked to do all he could to keep the families of his shinobi together.

They would be known as team 11, and for the first time in academy history, four teams 'passed' the Jounin evaluation.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The two one-eyed shinobi returned to their training ground, home of the memorial stone as well as where all the Hokages had taught their students at.

"Alright kid show me what you got," and within seconds the battle had begun. Naruto flipped back 3 times at a quick speed, using the disorientation of his body in Kakashi's vision to hide his hands as he flipped through seals. When he landed he made eye contact with his sensei.

"Kanashibari no Justu." spoke the blond and for a few moments Kakashi froze. But he had training to overcome this Justu, and he proceeded to prove so within 5 seconds of Naruto launching the technique. Lucky for Naruto, he could do the hand signs for one of his strongest attacks which was the strongest of any of its kind; as well as one of the few A-rank justus he knew in five seconds. 32 handsigns later with his hands held in the final sign; the bird hand sign, he called out his justu.

"Fuuton: Kazeryudan no Justu." (Wind Dragon Bullet Technique)

The air around him began to take on a pale green coloring as it swirled around the boy. Fueled by his chakra the wind formed into an eastern dragon 20 feet in length. Then, with yellow eyes glowing ominously, the dragon charged forward.

Kakashi had never been on the receiving end of a wind dragon so he decided to figure out just what the hell it did. So he created a shadow clone and at the same time, had it henge into a log as he used a Shunshin to move to the edge of the clearing they where in.

This was one of his common tactics. You trick your opponent into thinking you used a Kawarimi, then when they think there is just a log there, your clone pops up and delivers some sort of move, killing or incapacitating the opponent. It also helped on deciding on what to do when facing a new justu when his Sharingan wasn't in use.

The wind dragon slammed into the log, destroying it and the clone. Kakashi flinched as the clone's memory returned to him.

The Fuuton; Kazeryudan no Justu took on the wind's cutting abilities which meant that it cut, sliced, hacked, and even drilled its way through a solid object, whether it be a boulder or human depending on what the dragon was aimed at.

He sent out an earth clone to engage the boy. The second it entered the clearing, the clone stopped, then proceeded to fall apart into mud as a kunai pierced its skull from behind.

That's when Kakashi heard the sizzling. It was a special kind of sound, and one that he was used to hearing time and again. If he wasn't a Jounin, he would be asking Kami to forgive him for his sins, but alas he was a Jounin., and a damn good one too. So with speed alone, he left the blast range of the explosive note.

**BOOM!**

As it turns out, writing 10 high grade explosive notes directly on a tree was not something Kakashi excepted Naruto to do. Nor was he expecting the resulting shockwave to send him flying into the clearing. Now he would have gone all the way across the clearing and into the woods on the other side of it if not for Naruto, who was still standing in said clearing flying through some hand signs before calling out "Doton: Doryuheki"(Earth Style Wall)and so Kakashi slammed into a wall of earth, only for he himself to turn into a pile of earth.

'Damn must have made two earth clones. Now, where are you sensei?'

Naruto leapt up as the ground shifted below him, good thing to or he would have been up to his neck in rocks and dirt. Taking his chance, Naruto brought his hand together and gathered a tiny bit of the Kyuubi's chakra, 'snake - rat, Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu' (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique).

His Genjustu was successful for the four seconds that Kakashi was stuck inside of it. Mumbling a Kai and flaring his chakra, Kakashi freed himself from the Genjustu… except instead of disappearing, it phased out until it was completed distorted before correcting itself. That's when he sensed the yokai.

'Not much at all really just enough for the Genjustu. Now aside from rebuilding the Genjustu why would Naruto use the Kyuubi's chakra and not his own? But more importantly time to get outta here.'

"Kai!" Kakashi yelled out loudly. His chakra flaring from his absolute minimum to full strength in an instant and breaking the hell viewing technique in an instant.

"That's enough Naruto. I believe I know enough to get started here. Now come on down."

The boy came as directed and the duo set up a training schedule for the next few weeks. By the end of planning, revising, and conversing, they had down a great plan that would further improve Naruto's skill set.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

A few weeks had passed and life was going good for Naruto. In the mornings, Naruto would have his own free time. He mostly spent this time doing more physical things such as Kenjutsu and Taijutsu Katas; as well as your standard shinobi-in-training regiments, nothing like what Miato Gai and Rock Lee went through on a daily basis but it got the job done. When Kakashi arrived, clones helped to complete the day's d-rank mission.

Although neither shinobi needed the money, they did it for the requirements to take c-ranks and the Chunin Exams. Kakashi had his savings and Naruto's inheritance money had been apart of Sensei's care package.

Speaking of the two Green Beasts of Konoha, they had happened across the two Cyclopses of Konoha one day. It just so happened that Naruto had just asked Kakashi why he wore that navy blue mask day in and day out. Kakashi was getting ready to make up a false reply when a wondrous excuse in the form of his good friend Gai was within his sensing range. Kakashi was by no means a chakra sensor but you didn't live long as a shinobi during The Third Great Shinobi War without being able to tell if someone's around you.

So thinking clearly the blonde haired boy found himself in his present situation.

_**XXX (FIRST PERSON: START) XXX**_

Kakashi-sensei was just about to answer my question. But judging by the fact that his answer wasn't immediate, I had a suspicion that his answer would be some made up bullshit. Just as he opened his mouth he reached for a scroll, and unsealed what looked to be a set of clothing that matched his current wardrobe. Grabbing a mask off the top he tossed it to me and told me to put it on. I followed his order and slipped the mask over my head and into position. He then resealed the clothing and pocketed the scroll.

"Now play along and follow my lead. If you don't mess this up, you'll have a source of comic relief as well as a loyal friend for the rest of your life. Do it right and you can keep the mask"

"What ever you say Kakashi-sensei." Hey who knows, he might actually be right.

Just as my inner mussing ended, Team 9, otherwise know as Team Gai landed in the clearing. A tall man standing a solid six foot, ripped as hell, and that spandex suit that he had on made it quite clear. This was Maito Gai. I recognized him from the Bingo Book, a master at Taijutsu that could enter into an enemy bunker and come out the other side like a man possessed, leaving a trail of death and red behind him. Something he had done numerous times during the time he spent fighting in the Third Shinobi War.

He could also use the eight inner gates, something I was jealous about. The truth was that a jinchuriki actually can't open the gates, doing so would, if the seal wasn't strong enough, free the beast. Other seals, such as mine, would start drawing out massive amounts of the yokai which caused it to be the majority of the chakra in one's system which gave full control of one's body to their 'inmate'.

Anyway, following behind their sensei, was a male Hyuuga, a girl with her hair up in dual buns, and… 'Ahh I see your plan sensei, well if you got the big guy it would only seem fair if I took the mini-me.'

"Kakashi, my eternal rival! How do your flames of youth burn on the glorious day!"

"Hmm? Did you say something Gai?"

"Curse you and your hip attitude Kakashi!. "It was then that Gai noticed Naruto, 'hmm, just a change of hair and the kid would be Kakashi's clone. This must be young Naruto-kun.'

"Hello young Naruto-kun, is your springtime of youth burning brightly on such a youthful day!"

"Hmm? Did you say something Gai-sensei?"

Gai went wide eyed at this one, it hadn't come from Kakashi… oh no.

"KAKASHI MY ETERNAL RIVAL YOU HAVE SPRED YOUR UNYOUTHFULLNESS INTO YOUR YOUNG STUDENT! HOW COULD YOU ROB SUCH A FINE EXAMPLE OF THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH'S GLORIOUSNESS WITH YOUR HIP AND UNYOUTHFULL WAYS!"

If it wasn't for the fact that Gai had black hair I would have thought he was a Haruno. I tuned out Kakashi's reply to the green thing and I decided to look over said thing's team. The second green thing was staring at me with wide eyes, double the wide eyes seeing as he normally had a bug-eyed look. 'Ah yes my eternal rival to be. Wonderful.'

Next up was the Hyuuga, Neji if I was correct, genius of the Hyuuga branch family. Not much of a genius, when you only have one way to defeat someone, a Taijutsu style that requires moving slower than your opponent, you're not very good. No mater how advanced you are with it, well anything, if you can't use it you just have a pointless skill that you're really good at. What good is it if a shark can swim many times faster than a turtle if there's no water and the turtle walks away? Another set of wise words I remember from my time with Sensei.

Next, the girl had a lot of scrolls on her person and good muscle definition showing that she wasn't a fan girl with her trademark bun style hair, kinda panda-like. And seeing that she was the sole girl on the team and Neji was last year's rookie of the year that would make her the kunoichi of the year and my soon to be rival, the dobe.

I had just come out of my own little world when I heard the second green thing spout something about testing our flames of youth and a bunch of other 'youthful' rubbish. Looking over for help in the Youth to English translation, a skill I was sure I would learn over the time spent with my new rival, I learned that this boy meant we should spar.

"Well if the three of you think you can take me down, be my guests." So what if I'm cocky, when you have the skills to do it, why not? The two normal students took my words as an insult. Probably thinking along the lines of ' who the hell does this newbie think he is' by the look on the girl's face and the slight twining of the Hyuuga's eyebrow, which was basically the equivalent of the pissed off expression on the pale face that all Hyuuga's had, I was correct.

"I know that you're Hyuuga Neji ," I said pointing at said person, "but why don't you tell me your name before we get started." pointing at the girl.

"Names TenTen, our other team mate is Rock Lee. Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto... Kakashi-sensei, would you mind if we cut off training for a bit so I can put this team in their place?" With that statement Lee's eyes were burning with youthful fire. 'Great seems like they're all up for it.' Gai decided to take charge at this moment by laying down a few rules

"This will be a friendly spar between my youthful Genin squad and Kakashi's hip and cool student. Do not inflict serious injury, when I say stop you stop. If you wish to surrender hold up a hand and say it loudly. If someone surrendered do not attack them, and finally absolutely no kill shots."

I looked over at my sensei and patted my stomach, signing the hand signs for 'allowed to engage' he gave a minute negative shake of the head, well can't say I thought he'd give me the green light. My original sensei always laid down some limitations during a spar, so this check was just sticking to what I knew to be the status quo.

My opponents readied themselves. TenTen stood behind kunai in hand, Rock Lee and Neji before her in the Goken and Juken stances respectively.

_**XXX(FIRST PERSON: END)XXX**_

Naruto stood still as the three members of Team Gai moved into action .As the two boy charged, TenTen launched herself sky high and began to rain down weapons on either side as well as behind Naruto in an attempt to keep him stuck until Neji and Lee could get in range.

'Like that's gonna work on me' thought Naruto. Five hand signs later and the blonde breathed in and said "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" (Great Breakthrough) followed by breathing out quickly. The wind infused chakra created a large gust of wind knocking the weapons off course, and sending TenTen flying into the tree line as an added bonus. As TenTen flew off, she screamed out, Lee stopped his charge and jumped back, heading for his lost teammate's voice. Neji continued on towards the blonde.

Now facing just one opponent Naruto was in a better state, he could easily go head to head with three at a time but one on one fights were more his style. In another universe Naruto would have created some shadow clones and rushed head first to meet the Hyuuga that was 3 yards away, but not here.

Here Naruto drew his ninjato and used a Shunshin, replacing himself with a shadow clone at the same time, just in time to for Neji had just moved into striking distance. His chakra infused palm strike landed in the clones gut dispelling the clone and covering Neji in a poof of smoke. Then Naruto attacked, reappearing behind the Hyuuga genius Naruto's blade swung down, in a right to left cut. If Neji had hesitated in his charge through the shadow clone's residue smoke he would have sported a scar from his shoulder to hip matching the direction of Naruto's slash. But he had continued, having activating his Byakugan during the charge he saw Naruto reappear behind him and knew to keep moving forward. Neji spun around throwing a handful of shrunken, rushing in behind them, only to have wasted the trio of metal stars when Naruto used a Kawarimi, and the game of cat and mouse continued for two more rounds.

That was when Rock Lee returned with TenTen. Lee had run into her half way into the woods surrounding the clearing and the two had quickly returned.

Now that is was three on one again, Naruto had to plan. He dropped a smoke bomb and created a trio of shadow clones to buy him some time.

Neji and Lee took down the clones with Taijutsu, not meeting much resistance as the clones were only looking to dodge. Tenten was the same story but used her precision aim with kunai instead of her fists. Fortunately the clones had bought enough time for Naruto to set up his plan, throwing stealth out the window as it had no use against a Hyuuga, an issue that stored itself in the back of Naruto's mind for a later date.

Naruto created 2 clones, and the three of them used a Shunshin to enter the clearing, the clones grabbing onto Rock Lee and TenTen and moving out into the woods once again via the body flicker technique. Leaving the real Naruto to once again battle it out with Neji.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Elsewhere in the village Uchiha Sasuke was on a D-rank mission to once more capture the demon cat of Konoha, Tora.

This was the 4th time they had caught to cat and their 21st mission. With the cat in the hands of Sakura, Team 11 made its way to the Hokage Tower. Once they got upstairs the trio went through the paces of handing in Tora, collecting their paycheck, and watching the cat once more run away from the Fire Daimyo's wife.

"Now we have available: painting a new fence in the twenty-third district, moving a shipment of grain from the village gates that is due in from one of the farms outside the village, or going after poor Tora once more." spoke Hiruzen. He was in the mission hall performing mission hand outs solo at the time, the Chunin who was helping him to being out on lunch brake at the time Team 11 had entered in said hall with their captive.

Before Raido could select a mission for his team his problem child, as he had named the Uchiha, spoke up.

"These meaningless chores are below me, give me a mission worthy of an Uchiha's time and do so now."

If the Third was put off by the Uchiha upstart, he didn't show it. Years of politics had made him immune to being bothered by anything, let alone the bratty kid in front of him. Besides the 'graduation' to C-ranks was usually done in the form of a Genin demanding one from him anyway so it was also nothing new to the old man.

"Raido, do you think your squad is ready for a low C-rank mission," a nod came from the Jounin. The Third picked up a scroll from the C-rank mission pile and began filling out some forms. Just over a minute later he handed the scroll to the Chunin. "Very well take this and study it, inform your squad, and be ready to leave tomorrow, your client will meet you at the southern gates at 0900 hours, dismissed."

The team left the mission hall and Raido looked to see how his charges reacted to the mission assignment. The Uchiha smirked, the Morino grinned and the Haruno was off in dream land. If he had to guess, based of her mumblings, the dream was her mighty 'Uchiha-sama' defeating an army of bandits and evil ninja then returning to her and asking for her hand in marriage. Dear Kami, the girl was useless when around the black haired boy. When he was gone, she was at least decent. With having complete control of her rather low chakra and being particular smart, he could leave her to learn anything via scrolls and needing to assist minimally, usually just demonstrating what ever it was she was learning. This was how she learned a few minor Genjustu and a handful of Ninpo techniques.

After a visit to Maito Gai, Raido had also set up Idate with a set of leg weights. The boy might not grow up to be the interrogator his brother is but the kid was taking an unnamed Taijutsu style, that he grabbed from his Families* Shinobi library, to a whole new level.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Author's notes

A clan is 30 members or more families are 10 to 29 members. One could say that what I'm calling ninja families could be considered minnie-clans

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The style revolved around using his legs more than his arms in combat, add weights and speed that could rival most high Chunin and you had a formidable Genin.

Sasuke was a bitch and a half to work with and was always demanding new things. In his 'I deserve it all' mindset, he had completely overlooked using his clan's library to learn anything until Idate started bringing his scrolls to training. Since then, his knowledge in Katon justu had swelled to possess several C-rank and a duo of B-rank Katon justu. Proving that, even though he was an arrogant asshole, he was well deserving of his title of 'once in a generation genius'; taking that title opposed to the Uzumaki boy's 'prodigy not seen in a generation' title. Both titles meant close to the same thing technically but were different enough to correctly showcase the differences between the blonde rookie of the year and the raven haired runner up.

Genius meant he could learn what ever it was very quickly and put it into use at an exceptional level. While Prodigy was along those lines but it was how you used what you knew. Being unpredictable, think outside the box, things the Naruto excelled at.

All in all, they were ready for the real world and tomorrow his theory would be put to the test.

"Meet me at the training ground at 0800 hours, I'll give you guys the mission brief there. As for now, it's an escort mission to the Land of Waves. Pack for a month long trip, I'll see you tomorrow." And with that Raido left to hit the bar with a couple fellow Jounin, a ritual that a few of his friend had put together after the one of their friends died the night of the Kyuubi's attack.

Idate left to let his family know that he was leaving. The Morino family wasn't a very kind and loving group of individuals, but they were loyal. Loyal to the Leaf and loyal to the family itself. Idate was in for praise and possibly some new equipment.

Uchiha returned to his home. Packed in the Uchiha store house was pre-packed bags ready for various length mission which ranged from a week to 6 months. Resulting in Sasuke's planning to grab a few scrolls to learn during the next month before running himself into the ground via his nightly training.

Sakura rushed home to pack… right after asking the black haired boy on a date, being rejected, and then stalking said boy back to his clan's compound.

Then she set off to tell her parents. One crying fest between mother and daughter later and the family went to get some new things, a few sets of various ninja things and of course, beauty care products. Never know when you might get a chance to seduce the Uchiha. Backing from her parents in her chase only fueled her desire to court the 'Last Uchiha'.

None of them had a clue as to how bad their mission would end up going. Nor the impact it would have on the life of one blond haired shinobi.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Naruto stood across from Neji once again. Not one for taunts and just wanting to get down to business, he started flipping backwards. Kakashi recognized this move from their spar and mentioned to Gai to focus on the fight against Neji, as he had been locating his other two students at the time.

Now Neji was a very good Genin, he was strong, and had even defeated a Chunin level missing-nin from Kusagakure that his team had run into during a C-rank bandit wipeout mission with limited help from his teammates and sensei. Now, as a smaller village, their shinobi weren't on par with their same class counterparts from the five Great Hidden Villages but it was still quite the accomplishment. But faced with Naruto's justu he stood no chance. With one flip and three hand signs Naruto's were placed in front of his body as if he was shooting off a Kame-Hame-Ha.

"Fuuton: Kami Oroshi" (Wind Release: Godly Wind From the Mountains), said Naruto and a vortex of wind fired from Naruto's palms and launched and then crushed Neji into a tree. The tree helped and hurt Neji. It helped by stopping him from flying off somewhere but it hurt by leaving him unconscious. A little knot work later and the Hyuuga would be waking up tied to the same tree that aided him.

Naruto closed his eyes and used his budding chakra sensing to find out where his clones were, one was to the north and the other to the north west. The later being closer to the boy, so he decide to take care of that Genin last and set out for the clone and member of Team Gai due north of his position.

After a minute of tree travel Naruto entered into the battle between TenTen and his clone. They were playing a game of cat and mouse in the way of I throw weapons you dodge or blast them with a wind justu. Deciding to take advantage of this routine, Naruto waited for TenTen to have just released her payload, the rings of the kunai knives just brushing up against her fingertips as the flew off towards their target to strike. And like a hawk baring down on a fish in the sea, he dove down in a drop kick, the once more airborne TenTen showed to be more aware this round and threw a kunai, a strand of wire tied at the end and pulled herself out of the path of Naruto's falling foot.

The clone went up in a poof of smoke, returning memories of TenTen's unique fighting style to the original which could be called death my mostly many sharp and pointy objects. Naruto and TenTen landed and faced off against one another. The latter of the two spoke.

"Are you the real one or just another clone?"

"Why don't you just come find out?" and come she did. She once more jumped sky high but this time twin scrolls accompanied her. Then as she said "Soshoryu!" then the onslaught began.

Weapons of all shapes and sizes, some littered with explosive notes fell upon Naruto like rain from a monsoon.

Watching from afar, Gai and Kakashi watched TenTen's attack begin.

"What youth does my blossoming princess of youth hold! Look at her glisten the landscape in her youthful shower of weaponry! Surely she has claimed victory with this attack!"

"If it were anyone else Gai I would agree, but this is Naruto. Even to me he's still a mystery; my bet is on him somehow getting out of this unharmed. We might even see something we haven't seen before." replied the copy-nin.

And something new indeed, Naruto also grabbed a scroll. He tossed it into the air and it opened on the ground in front of him; a half tiger sign and the small scroll grew to the size of summoning scroll. About 6 feet of scroll was presented and on it was a very large fuuin. Naruto supplied a second pulse of chakra and just as the rain of death from pointy mental objects was on him.

"Ura Shisho Fuuinjutsu!" (Reverse Four Symbol Sealing Technique) cried out Naruto, then he jumped back as a spray of ink covered everything within 5 feet in every direction, even seeping into the earth. Then, with a white flash of light, everything but the scroll disappeared along with 80% of Soshoryu's payload as well. In her shock of not only being outdone, seeing such a powerful Fuuinjutsu being used, and the loss of all those weapons, TenTen was powerless to stop Naruto from applying a small sealing tag the back of her neck. This fuuin was a basic Uzumaki styled piece of Fuuinjutsu; it would block electrical impulses from the brain to the body, allowing only the involuntary muscles to work and effectively knocking someone unconscious.

Up in their treetop 'viewing platform' the two Jounin were in shock, the Ura Shisho Fuuinjutsu was a known Fuuinjutsu, both of them had seen it from their time in ANBU. Kakashi even had it applied to himself in the event of his death, but that's just it. The Ura Shisho Fuuinjutsu was a in-death-activation justu, basically a suicide technique, to modify it to work on a scroll, well it just went to show how far advance Naruto was in the art of Fuuinjutsu since he received the Uzumaki scrolls. Kakashi sure as hell couldn't do it, and while he knew Jiraiya-sama and Minato-sensei could have done so. It just went to show that Naruto was truly his father's child as well as a full blooded Uzumaki. The Sharingan wielder made a mental note to report this to the Sandaime, as well as find out just how far Naruto's ability in the Uzumaki's forte went.

By the time the two Jounin came back down to earth Naruto had moved to face Lee. Surprisingly returning to the clearing he had been removed from. Lee had detected his clone while Naruto was rounding up the end of his fight with TenTen and had returned to wait the younger boy's return.

"Yosh! Now we shall see who's youthful flames burn brightest!"

"Hmm, did you say something Lee?

"Curse your hip and cool attitude Naruto!"

Back in the tree, Kakashi and Gai sweat dropped at how their respective 'clones' had already embraced their 'eternal rivalry'. This was verbalized in the form Gai's exclaiming of how youthful it is that the two boys had embraced their sensei's ways.

Down below the before mentioned boys had settled into their respective Taijutsu stances. Lee into the Goken stance for the third time since arriving at training ground seven and meeting Naruto. On the other side of the clearing, Naruto settled into his own stance. Naruto preferred the sword over his fist in melee combat but he knew sometimes you just had no other choice, so he didn't ignore the art of Taijutsu. In fact he had taken a scroll from the shinobi library on a style that was based on the use of palm and finger jabs to attack, influenced by the stories on the Juken he had turned to his big fury friend once more and in a sense, recreated the Juken. Poisonous yokai delivered to the body's joints organs and pressure points would put a major downer on anyone's day. Unfortunately he was no Taijutsu prodigy, and the style was still under development and was just in the beginning stages of both combination of style and idea. As well as Naruto actually learning the thing, an issue he was planning on correcting now that he had more time off from the academy. Combined with the fact that he had only put his final touches on the theory of this style during the last semester of the academy.

But if Naruto was good at one thing, it would be improvisation. Add that to the devil's luck Naruto was gifted with, and the result was him matching Lee punch for palm strike in a battle of Taijutsu. Sadly for the Kakashi 2.0, improvising can only get you so far and at the 5 minute mark, Lee began to over come Naruto's style, that and he wasn't using the Kyuubi's chakra at all, but rather increasing the strength of his attacks with his own chakra. A common tactic that he had picked up from the man he referred only to as Sensei.

Flipping backwards, Naruto settled onto the ground about 10 feet away from Lee, both boys panting but not out of breath. "You're good Lee, really good. I'd like to test out this style on you once I finish creating it"

"Creating it?" ask Lee. Voicing the question that was on Kakashi's and Gai's minds as to where Naruto got his Taijutsu from.

"Well I'm working this style I found at the Shinobi Library. I added a few parts that I haven't worked on yet but its basically a recreation and update to the original style. It is different than the original so I might as well say its my own right?" Naruto replied adding in Kakashi's signature eye smile. Naruto wasn't exactly sure how he pulled it off or even how he knew he did it; so he decided to say it was all in the mask. Continuing on he said, "Well this has been fun and all but its time to end this", drawing up just enough of the Kyuubi's yokai to use the Genjustu he flashed through a set of handsigns and said, "Genjutsu: Kokuangyo no Jutsu."( Bringer of Darkness). And just as it said Lee was launched into a world of darkness. While Lee could use his chakra he couldn't ignite it which was the reason he couldn't use justu but could tree climb and water walk. Sadly not having the ability to ignite your chakra made it impossible to free yourself from a Genjustu using the chakra flare/kai technique, thus Lee went down the same way TenTen did with a seal tag to be the back of the neck.

Naruto sent out another set of shadow clones to bring back the other member of team Gai as Kakashi and the leader of said team hoped down off their perch. After giving the clone some time to get back and waking up Neji and TenTen (as well as untying the former), they asked Naruto about the knock-out tags, wanting to know if their was anything special about them. But that wasn't the case and they were run of the mill tags. When the Shinobi and one Kunoichi reviewed the sparing session they found that Lee was sad, but excited at the same time, TenTen was disappointed, especially when Naruto said that the weapons she lost were stuck in that seal. When she asked about it, Naruto told her.

"The seal is set up so that unless you have a life ready to be sacrificed, and I'm talking a human, its not going to release it's content. Don't look at my seal as if it's evil. I'm teaching you an important lesson here. Don't rely solely on your weapons. They can be sealed or someone with a wind style Ninjustu could destroy you easily as well as I just showed you." TenTen was upset still but not as drastically. She was also a little embarrassed.

And of course, Neji just thought that it was their fate to lose and that if they ever found themselves in a fight were it mattered, Neji would win. Naruto in another world would have gone on about how fate isn't set in stone, but like how he deals with anyone that was a slave to angst, ignored them unless it effected him directly.

After some chatter between the two sensei, Team Gai left, heading to perform their nightly training while Kakashi went to inform the Hokage about Naruto's new abilities. He told Naruto to return in 2 hours, as well as to eat during the break before a swirl of leaves picked up and he was gone in the direction of the Hokage tower.

As for the boy himself, his prayer time had be interrupted so after a short trip to Ichiraku Ramen, the boy headed for his rooftop pseudo-shrine, settled in for meditation, and his sensei's return.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Thanks for reading!

Chapter two is up and the story is starting to run.

If anyone thinks that the Taijutsu style is OP or that saying its just stupid, well it might be OP but when you can do something, why not? Now Naruto's sensei did teach him a Taijutsu style, it was the academy basic. When your trying to keep away onlookers you try to keep things the same as the would have been before. A new Taijutsu style in the academy would have shown off that Naruto was being taught by an outside source. And who is to say that Sensei didn't teacher everyone's favorite blonde more than one style?

Anyway, thanks for reading and drop in a review if you got any questions or comments. As a new writer anything is welcome. P.s. the anonymous reviewing is off so you'll need an account to do so, accounts are free and easy to make and allows you to be more involved in what you read, I recommended to anyone who reads on this site to makes one.

Until next time, Timeclue21


	3. Chapter 3: Our First Missions

Hello friends! Chapter three has arrived and joining it a special surprise! Actually its more of a miniature rant/explanation. To all those interested in reviewing but with out an account, no worries! Now anonymous reviewing is available. But seriously make an account because I wont be doing a review reply on the story again and the only way that I'll get back to you is if you have an account for private messaging , and I make my point to reply within 1-2 days of your submission.

With out further ado, I received an anonymous review the other day, here it is, "That was really good and I got really into it thanks. Hey what is under Naruto's eye patch I think you should make it one of Kyuubi's eyes or give him this bloodline I made where like the sharingan you activate it with a tragic moment in your life and it turns your eye no matter what color it is a dark dark navy blue with the pupil turned into the shape similar to the Star of David and if someone looks into it they die instantaneously or go into coma." (edited to be grammatically correct.)

I will admit it, an eye that causes instant death, pretty bad ass stuff going on there. But then my brain kicks in and goes alright I got this super death eye, Hi Itachi! Oh you wanna make eye contact for Tsukuyomi? Ahh nope dead Itachi Hahahahahaha sorry No Kyuubi for you cause I got death eye! Oh Orochimaru is here? In this forest? Mawahahaha death eye! Oh wow look I'm surrounded by Root and Danzo hahaha death eye! Sorry Izanagi doesn't work when your dead! Oh wow check it out Tobi is here! Death eye, WW4 is over! Oh Sasuke's back? Oh kami help me he's got all this super cool stuff! (Blaze release, Karin (the lighting super beast not the redhead, and the various sharingan justu are awesome, you know it, don't lie to yourself, you know it's the truth!) oh wait I'm gonna do to you what I did to your brother! and what's that? Death eye! I'm the king of the world!… I wonder what death eye looks like hmm? *Naruto looks at mirror.* "DEATH EYE!" the end.

Death/coma eye = a god, not a god like Naruto but a God. Not sure on if it should be shinigami or kami but never the less.

Now don't get me wrong here, I love a strong Naruto just as much as the next guy/girl who spends their time on but seriously? Things like 'death eye' ruin stories, the little omake… I guess you could call it, above is about all you could write in a story, well until you add the 40 girl age Hanabi to the Thirds female teammate and coming from Kiri to Iwa harem, who through liberal use of shadow clones, are kept pleased and happy. Oh did I forget to mention that Naruto is immortal to all wounds and that any damage makes him 2x times stronger than before? Or that by sleeping with a women she gets the same powers? No? silly me, how could I forget. This always happens with a God like Naruto he's invincible by 12 and some how can pass on various powers to the women he is sleeping with.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone on how they like their slice of fishcake (hehehe I made a funny) but be real here. I love the ideas and I encourage them to continue but again, be realistic. Ill give an example on a naru/hina argument. _**THIS WILL NOT BE HAPPEING HERE SO I CAN USE IT WITHOUT GIVIENG AWAY STORY THINGS AND SUCH RELATED TOPICS!**_

Good Example: you should make this a naru/hina fic because reason 1 reason 2 reason 3, Hinata would be good in this fic as a main character because reason 1,2,3

Bad example: I love hina/naru, so this should be a naru/hina fic. It would be so good because hina/naru is the hottest paring evers. *squeals* if you don't do this I wont ever read this again. From, hina/naru4eversssss.

Again no offence but that the way I would do things and it makes sense. In my eyes naru/hina could never happen. Why? Think about it, the Hyuuga clan inbreed… witch means that they are all 100% Hyuuga, not 50% Hyuuga and 25% Uzumaki and Namikaze respectively. And to a clan that is royalty in Konoha, politics are everything. When you need to be the top you don't join forces with the bottom. When someone runs for President they pick someone who is well liked, not someone who everyone hates. Why? Because no one likes the ones they hate, and if you like someone they hate, their opinion of you drops and next thing you know the Aburame clan is the new royalty of Konoha. They seem stoic enough to fit the job description. Not a whole lot of angst but hey, whatcha ya gonna do? Personally I think the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans own all the angst in the village

And as you all know, no one on this site owns Naruto or anything that deals with the mange/anime, including myself. If the day that Naruto ever becomes mine, well Naruto's talent wouldn't be wasted on various forms of the same justu that I think is just a hand held Kaitan. No offence to the Rasengan, it's an awesome justu but when you brake it down into its basic form I believe I've hit the nail on the head. Basic disclaimer on profile.

Rant is over, story begins now. Enjoy!

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Today was a big day in the life of Uzumaki Naruto. When Kakashi arrived at the training ground he told his blonde student to pack up for a C-rank mission. When asked what they would be doing, Kakashi told him that a town near the border with the Land of Rivers, one of the minor trade routes, was having a bandit issue. They were losing livestock to the robbers which was a one way ticket to famine in a place were little foodstuff was grown. The grounds that would be full of crops were left untended in favor of grazing lands for the various animals. Food could be traded for dairy and meat products from livestock, after all.

The two shinobi left immediately. Kakashi, as a Jounin, never left home without at least two weeks worth of gear, from rations, to a bag of solider pills, to extra shuriken, you never left home without it. A lesson he had learned from a man he looked towards as a father who also happened to be his student's father, his own sensei, the Yondaime Hokage.

And it just so happened that who ever the man that was only know as Sensei had the same lessons. In fact, Naruto was prepared for a month, not that Kakashi couldn't stretch his supplies to last that long if he had to but, at this point, he was already expecting the unexpected when it came to his student so he wasn't too impressed when things like this happened anymore.

Soon after they were flying through the trees, not even knowing that Team Eleven would be following a path almost parallel to their current route a few hours later. Kakashi took the opportunity to see how good Naruto's speed was. Ever since they had left the Jounin had been increasing his speed and now, just over an hour later, the duo was moving at high Chunin speeds. This seemed to be Naruto's limit for when Kakashi moved up to the speed needed for a Chunin to pass the Jounin exam, Naruto didn't keep pace with him. He didn't falter but, slowly but surely, he was beginning to fall behind. So they stuck to high Chunin speeds, making it to the halfway point, a trip that would take a week at civilian speeds, in 6 hours. Camp was set up and Dinner came in the form of field rations. Afterward, Kakashi handed Naruto a scroll with various ways to enhance the senses via chakra. The boy took the scroll and began to study it as Kakashi went to grab a few hours of sleep, leaving his charge on watch duty.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Moving at the civilian pace that Kakashi and Naruto avoided on their first mission together Team 11 with their client, a master bridge builder by the name of Tazuna, headed towards the Land of Waves. Sakura, standing left guard of their diamond formation, admired the never changing surroundings. Where Sasuke kept his eyes focused in front on him ready for anything and everything. Idate was remembering the night that he was deceived into betraying his village and his goal in life, kill Aoi Rokusho and reclaim the Raijin no Ken for Konoha.

His two average Genin were off in their own little world and his problem child was paying attention. Raido himself was also keeping watch with total focus, the client was lying and he knew it, the Hokage knew it as well. They even knew that it was Gato, the shipping billionaire with more than a little dealing with the black market, that their client was 'fighting' against. He was prepared and at the first sign of danger to take care of it and then he would call for reinforcements.

Speaking of trouble, a puddle was on the road up ahead.

"Hmm how odd, a puddle when it hasn't rained in two weeks. That seems awfully inconspicuous." said Raido, alerting his charges of the up coming fight. They group stopped and Raido stepped forward taking point as Tazuna stepped back, Sakura joining him. Idate stayed on the left as Sasuke moved to his sensei's right.

"You two get out of that puddle, now." Just as the last word came out of Raido's mouth the two shinobi burst into action. "Take care of them" was Raido's simple command and Idate and Sasuke joined the two opponents in action.

When the four ninja settled into stalemate the Leaf shinobi using kunai to hold back the clawed gauntlets of their opponents. Raido looked at the hitai-ate of the enemy's foreheads. 4 wavy lines two above and two below with a scratch running horizontally thought the emblem signified that the two missing-nin were originally from Kirigakure, the horns attached to their protectors told him which ones.

"So The Demon Brothers, you're the ones after Tazuna's life. How unfortunate." mused Raido as the fighting continued. Idate was faster than Meizu and soon the missing-nin was overpowered, granted it was Raido who stepped in and knocked out the Chunin with a chakra strike to the back of the neck, a move that was a knock out technique with the added benefit off being a kill shot if enough power was put into it. It was a rip off of the Juken that was part of what a new chunin was taught when they passed the exams.

The end result was a knocked out Gozu, Raido had also interfered with Sasuke's match just before the end. He was not ready to deal with his Genin going into first kill shock, as it was commonly referred to throughout the shinobi world.

"Set up camp, we'll be here for a while so make it nice." he ordered as he moved to 'interrogate' Tazuna. A sob story and some guilt tripping later and Raido had his story ready to relay to the Hokage. He pulled out a scroll, a bit of blood and chakra fed into a seal and in a poof a messenger hawk appeared. Writing down what the Hokage needed to hear he sent the bird back home. It was early afternoon when everything was said and done so he told his charges to get to training. Might as well use the time without distractions to improve themselves.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Kakashi couldn't have been more pleased with his charge. They had pushed into the village late at night, almost missing the village elder before he turned into bed for the night, the elder had offered a room for the two but they Naruto insisted that he just tell them where the thugs were. Kakashi agreed. The scroll he had given Naruto on their way here was so that they could use the cover of darkness to make the mission run smoothly. The village elder told them that the thugs came from the southwest when they attached, so the two shinobi set out heading southwest out of the small village after thanking the man of course. It wouldn't do for the man to think that Konoha shinobi were rude and have him go to Suna or even Kiri looking for 'Nicer' ninja.

Within ten minutes they were at the coast and lo and behold a dock had been built, occupied by two medium sized ships one on either side and just past the sand of the beach, the plains had fences set up and inside were most of the missing animals.

"You take this end and I'll start on the far side. Kill the sentries and I'll meet you at the ships. When we get to the ships take the one of the left, I'll go into the one on the right. be careful to not kill any animals or damage anything in the ships or the ships themselves for that matter. Use the enhancement techniques I gave you earlier to move through the darkness and flare your chakra if any shinobi turn up." ordered the copy-nin before disappearing in a blur of sheer speed.

And so the slaughter of 14 bandits began.

With no shinobi resistance the operation was over and done with in a fast 15 minutes, kill counts stood at 9 and 5 for Kakashi and Naruto respectively. They decided to walk back to the village, planning on taking the elders offer of room and board, on the way there a owl hooted, now it wasn't anything spectacular, if it wasn't in a pattern used by Konoha's animal messengers system. Kakashi flared his chakra and clicked his tough thrice a pause then once more before he lifted his arm up. The owl, a grey one with a scroll pack strapped on, the center part sat over the owl's chest was engraved with the Konoha emblem. It landed on Kakashi's arm and after removing the scroll the Jonin opened it and smeared a bit of blood on the two seals located within. The first delivered a dead mouse, witch was given to the owl. The second held one sheet of paper baring the Sandaime's signature and stamp of authentication. It gave orders to take over command of the mission given to team eleven, team elevens mission brief and set of coordinates a haft hours travel by tree hop away from the path they took. This path leading to the Land of Fire's boarder with the strait that separated it from the Land of Waves. The scroll was return to the owl's holder and the bird flew off.

Kakashi gave Naruto the letter and he destroyed it after reading it, the Sandaime's seal contained an actual seal that, when activated, would ignite and burn the sheet of paper. It would also let the Sandamie know that the message had been delivered to his subordinates. A seal located on the Hokage's desk would glow green from the time the message was opened until the message was destroyed by the seal. If it was destroyed another way, the glow would turn red letting the Hokage know the message was potentially and probably compromised.

"I'm thinking we should take up the elders offer and hospitality before leaving before day brake tomorrow what do you think." Naruto mearly nodded an action almost invisible in the dark, " and I guessing this isn't your first set of kills, is it?"

"No not even close, I've killed 53 people, 41 men and 7 women during my time under Sensei and now 5 under you." Kakashi figured as much, only he didn't think his charge would keep count. "I can tell your asking why I keep count and it's my way of coping. Just like Gai's youth and love of green spandex and your porn and lateness, I deal with my shinobi duties by keeping score of my kills, usually just a tally but names if they share that with me. I write it down in a little black box I have in my shuriken pouch."

The boy pulled out said box, a 4x3x1 stack of bounded paper with a black paperback cover. He unsealed a small brush from a seal hidden on the front cover, black ink hides so well on black paper, and opened it to a blank page. Then he wrote the date and 5 tally marks. With that done the boy resealed the brush and retuned the book to his pouch. The two shinobi continued on the trail for a few minutes before Naruto spoke up again.

"When I return to the village I'll give a small pray to Inari-sama to watch over their journey to the next world as well as light an incest that will be placed under the Torii that you saw on my roof the other day. It's a practice that I picked up from Sensei, a little customization on where we pray and to witch god we do so to but never the less it's a way of honoring the man that taught me almost all that I know."

When Naruto finished speaking they were already in the village. It wasn't until Naruto was asleep and Kakashi was just on the edge of falling into dream land did he realize that the fog of mystery surrounding the man named Sensei was beginning to clear.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

At the first signs of daybreak Raido was already awake, two chakra signatures were moving towards his campsite. He was about to awaken his Genin when he realized he knew the signatures. One of them he recognized to be Hatake Kakashi meaning the other signature must be Uzumaki Naruto. It seemed fate favored Raido for he had be hoping to see why Hatake had chosen the jinchuriki over his problem child ever since he became a sensei. But It also made sense, keeping the Uchiha loyal was a job any Jonin worth their rank could take care of but a jinchuriki of unknown skill, talent and ability? That was a job Raido could safely say he trusted in the hands of the villages elite more than his own two hands. In preparation of the soon to arrive back-up Raido woke his team and client, by the time everyone was up and breakfast was finished being cooked Kakashi and Naruto dropped into the clearing.

"Hello Kakashi, I see you and Naruto were sent out here to back us up."

"No, we were on a C-rank not a mile from here actually. We had just finished when the message arrived, so why don't you fill us in on what you know." replied the copy-nin. The two new shinobi to the mission accepted the breakfast offered by their comrades as they sat down.

After a briefing on everything that happened, they were shown the Demon Brothers, still out cold from Raido's attack. A bit of smelling salts and Gozu was reintroduced to the real world. The Chunin wouldn't tell the Jounin anything but Naruto came to the rescue. Not that the Jounin was incapable but their next step was to torture the information out of the brothers.

Naruto's methods were torture in a sense but it was through the use of genjustu. It tricked the mind into thinking that the enemy was your allies and in a situation where you were reawakening from being unconscious, it worked quite well.

Gozu was knocked out again in favor of Meizu. Naruto's illusion in place the man spilled everything he knew as if he was spying on his allies all along. And so the two Jounin and one Genin learned about who they were up against. Nearly 300 bandits, the A-rank missing-nin 'Demon of the Bloody Mist' Momochi Zabuza and his apprentice Haku, a 15 year old girl who had the thought to be extinct Hyoton Kekkei Genkai. They also learned where Gato and Zabuza's respective hideouts were located.

Gato could be found on the southern coast of The Land of Waves in a port town he had taken over and ousted or enslaved the village's population while Zabuza was located in a tree house. While a little odd it worked and was located in a forest halfway from the island center and its west coast. Decisions were made and the three shinobi left to rejoin the rest of the Leaf nin and Tazuna. When the entered the clearing and Team Eleven saw who had arrived their reactions went two ways. Idate, who knew who Kakashi was, was wearing a mask of pure shock. It's not every day you see a man who was in a handful of books, the history books being just one of them.

The duet of ninja who's names began with the letter S were on a different emotion though. Both radiated hatred for this man, the fact that Naruto was also here was just icing on the cake. But if that wasn't true their orders were.

"The Hokage has decided to name this a B-rank mission. With the information we learned today he'll most likely label it an A-rank mission upon the next report. As such a B-rank is too high for a fresh Genin team, no matter how, good to handle alone. Let alone an A-rank one. As such we're going to follow the Hokage's orders and return home. He has a C-rank waiting for us upon our return. Pack up your gear and be ready to leave in 10." ordered Raido.

"What makes these two better for this mission than the four of us! We have Sasuke-kun and are a full squad! There's only two of them!" screeched out Sakura, who could see the pissed off expression in her crushes face and even though she was scared she wanted to impress the last Uchiha.

"What makes my student better than you is experience, Naruto is already a Chunin in all but name. He's killed before you all graduated and I can trust him to fallow my orders to the T. As for myself, hmm you don't need to know about that. Together well be more than a match for an unsuspecting set of opponents. Raido we'll be leaving now so, until later." with that Kakashi walked over to his student and their new client, the three of them started walking off, Kakashi and Naruto walking next to one another with Tazuna behind.

Raido watched them walk off for a moment before rounding up his charges and instructing them to tree hop back to the village. Within two hours they had returned and the squad was dismissed with orders to return to the gates at ten tomorrow for their new C-rank mission. The Genin left and Raido headed to the tower. Not before depositing the demon brothers at T&I to be interrogated for any useful information before they were sent killed and cashed in for their bounty, which would be split four ways evenly between Team 11. After he dropped off the Demon Brothers for Ibiki and Anko's department to have fun with, Raido reported to Hiruzen Sarutobi, only telling him what had happened between the back-up message and Kakashi's departure to save time for the ageing village leader.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

At Kakashi's insistence, Tazuna had been knocked out carried on Kakashi's back to speed up travel time. The reason for his unconscious state was so that he didn't get sick and lead to an incident Kakashi wished to avoid. One of which that would lead to Kakashi needing to make use of his spare clothing scroll. That lead him to remember that he needed to restock that scroll with a facemask as Naruto had taken to wearing the one he gave during their meeting with Team Gai a week prior to leaving for their first C-rank mission together. Kakashi refocused on his surroundings and continued onwards towards the home of the unconscious drunkard on his back.

The man in question was awoken when they reached the town across the strait from the Land of Waves and took them to where a friend of his lived who owned a small boat.

A short ride across rather calm seas and the trio disembarked and set out to Tazuna's house. They had just began to walk when Naruto threw a kunai into a bush, a white rabbit came scampering out of the brush and the two Cyclopes shared a look. Then Kakashi tackled Tazuna to the ground as a giant sword flew at them like a boomerang. Naruto leapt over the blade and turned around, facing the man who had appeared on the blade after it stuck itself into a tree. With a sword that big it wasn't hard to guess who had just crashed the party.

"We were wondering when you would attack Zabuza. Why don't you just leave now and forget about Gato and Tazuna. You have no chance taking down both my apprentice and myself." called out Kakashi, deciding to speak before the Kirigakure no Kijin had a chance to.

"Humph, sorry Hatake Kakashi, I cant do that. Good news is that we'll get to see if your claim is right or wrong." said Zabuza.

"Kakashi-sensei, I would like to test my skills against Zabuza before you finish him. If that's alright with you?" asked Naruto already drawing his ninjato and infusing it with chakra so that it would hold up against Zabuza's monster of a blade. The copy-nin nodded in return and drew a kunai, settling in to guard Tazuna.

"Zabuza!," called out Naruto, " I'll be your opponent today, I've been looking for a good swordsmen to try my blade against. I do hope you don't disappoint."

"Hehehe, look at you Kakashi, sending in a gaki to do your dirty work! I knew you had let yourself go since you left Konoha's ANBU forces but this is just sad! As for you brat, let me show you why you shouldn't mess with a Jounin." At that threat he unleashed his K.I. onto the blonde haired gaki.

Instantly Naruto felt the man's killing intent settle down upon him. He had to give the man credit, this was the second most potent K.I. he had every felt, not even Kakashi or Sensei had K.I. like this.

'Kyuubi, if you would.' thought the blonde, in reply he felt the red chakra enter his system. Now normally, Naruto was laid back and calm at all times but not when the Kyuubi's chakra was in his system.

In another world, Naruto would fight against the Kyuubi's chakra when it entered his system, the goal being to block out all the negative effects of using the yokai. In this reality thought, he embraced it. This is why Naruto was so dangerous with the Kyuubi. The normally calm and collected boy went straight from normal to blood thirsty and insane, while at the same time being able to think clearly. It was no longer a fight between shinobi, it was a hunt. He was the hunter and the enemy was the hunted. And nothing is sweeter than the feeling of the hunt. To top It all off, this was all with out the harm a jinchuriki would normal take by using their bijuu's chakra. The reason being that the prisoner and jailor had agreed on a set of terms, the basics of which gave Naruto access to the 3-tailed stated without the fox's meddling.

For these demands, the boy could give the fox access an altered mindscape, a wide and empty land took place of the sewer that once was the seal's physical representation, but the gate remained. Access **t**o his senses was already given by the seal.

One would think that the beast would never allow this but over one hundred years with less then an hour of being able to move freely before being sealed into Naruto had lead to the Kyuubi being more for lack of a better word docile.

Naruto tilted his head down, sword in his left hand, his arm was not raised, leaving the blade just inches from the ground. In the shadows of his bangs, his lone visible eye shifted form it's natural blue color to blood red with a silted pupil. The eye under his eye patch opened, but still blocked off from the outside world by said patch. His whisker marks widened, his nails and canine teeth grew longer and sharper, and his blonde hair grew longer and spikier, as it stood on end.

Time seemed to stand still as the transformation took place. Zabuza was just about to ask what the boy was doing when it came. Killing Intent like he had never felt before in his life, the feeling of being hunted by something he never had a hope of standing against. Every muscle in his body wanting to move as his flight or fight reflex sent messages of 'Run, Run now, Run as fast as you god damn can!' To his body.

'To think this kid had this inside of him, the only time I've felt killing intent like this is when I attempted to assassinate the Yondaime Mizukage, but that man is a jin…oh fuck me sidewise." Zabuza thought as he figured out what Naruto was.

Kakashi instantly realized instantly what this feeling was. He had felt it once before in his life when the Kyuubi attacked his village. He worried half a second that Naruto had lost control, but he knew that was not true. This was nothing compared to when he made eye contact with the demon fox and fell pray to it's horrendous killing intent.

'To think Naruto had this much control over the fox's powers. Sensei chose right when he picked his son to hold the fox within himself.'

"Allow me to introduce myself Zabuza. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I am the Demon Spawn of Konoha, the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. I do hope you can give me a good fight, it's not often that I get the chance to unleash this side of me. Prepare yourself for the fight of your life." with that Naruto disappeared as if he had never been there, moving at speeds past what the human eye could see. It was almost too fast for the 3 ninja in the clearing and Tazuna who was just barely awake thanks to Kakashi's K.I. holding back just about all of the other ninjas intent from reaching him. Unlike Kakashi, Tazuna couldn't even see the blurs the ninjas had become, moving at the speed they were.

Up in her perch, Haku worried for her master, preparing to step in to 'capture' him at any given moment. "Zabuza-sama please be alright."

Down below Kakashi cursed, Naruto's chakra presence was blocking him from sensing any other signatures, looks like the mysterious Haku would remain hidden. Though if she was here at all was still up for debate but he would bet she was here somewhere. He made an earth clone to try and flush her out and then focused on his student fight with one of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shu. Just in time to, for Naruto's nameless blade had just came into contact with Zabuza's Kubikiribocho and with that a battle between swordsmen began. Kakashi thought that his student's best abilities were with Fuinjutsu and Ninjustu with his Genjustu and Taijutsu a close second, but now Kakashi could say Naruto wasn't chunin level he was Tokubetsu Jonin with his Jonin level skill being Kenjutsu. Kakashi had only ever seen such swordsmanship from two people in the leaf village in his life, Uzuki Yugao, the second in command of his ANBU squad, and her lover, Hayate Gekko, who was the villages best Kenjutsu practitioner.

Just when Kakashi thought he had figured the kid out, he goes and pulls high level Kenjutsu skills out of nowhere. The Hokage and himself really had to sit down with Naruto and learn everything, and he meant EVERYTHING, the boy was capable of.

Back with the fight Naruto and Zabuza had been trading blows continuously for the last few minutes. Slash for slash, hack for hack with a horde of parries and deflections in between. Jumping back Zabuza stabbed his Zanbato in the ground and with a few handsigns activated the Kirigakure no Justu he was famous for using in conjunction with his skills in silent killing. Turns out thought, Naruto was having none of that. He let out a roar and the chakra from the Kyuubi exploded out in a shockwave, dispelling the mist and sending its creator out onto the cove they had docked in, to land in the Land of Waves. This was a bad idea though because Zabuza returned his sword to its place on his back and began a set of handsigns seeing this Naruto also began to form handsigns. Unknowingly the two shinobi had decided to use a different version of the same jutsu. Simultaneously they called out.

"Suiton: Suiruydan no justu!"

"Futon: Kazeryudan no justu!"

Two dragons, one of water and one of wind came to life, circling around their creator. Then with a roar both rushed at one another. They impacted together and dispersed. Even before the dragon had left Zabuza had started another chain of hand seals finishing them he cried out

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" a giant wave of water came baring down on Naruto and he was hit with it full force, the waves pushed him back and rammed him up against a tree. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi's chakra coercing thought him at the moment he would have been finished then and there but alas it was and as such Naruto got right back up and drew his blade once more. He took two steps forward before using a Shunshin to reappear right in front of Zabuza and lunged forward.

In shock of seeing the boy unharmed, he took the stab to the gut before punching Naruto all the way back to shore. He used the Shunshin to keep pace with the boy and began to fight him in Taijutsu. A moment later and Naruto went flying back towards Kakashi. Just as the two engaged shinobi were about to go into another justu battle, a trio of sebon needles flew out of the trees and pierced the elder Ninja in the neck and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. The hunter-nin dropped down near the presumably dead man's body before he quickly thanked them and in a nice way told the Konoha shinobi he was stealing their kill. Before they could reply the boy or girl, they couldn't tell due to the ninja's baggy clothing, mask, and androgynous voice, disappeared in a swirl of… ice crystals.

"That was Haku wasn't it Kakashi-sensei?" ask the blonde letting the Kyuubi's chakra and with it the effects on his body recede into the seal.

It was only now that he realized that he had been so captivated with his student's fight that he failed to realize his earth clone had been killed. 'Damn, I should have paid more attention to that clone.' "Yeah I'd bet my entire pay that it was. Seems like we'll be seeing those two at least once more during this mission." said the silver haired man. He grabbed Tazuna, scaring the man into nearly wetting himself, before asking for the man to lead the way to his home. Kakashi made sure to mention that Tazuna should not tell anyone, no mater who it was, that Naruto was a jinchuriki. Not really knowing what the term meant the man agreed to just say it was some super special ninja ability the kid could use. Kakashi told the man that was agreeable.

When they arrived, the two Konoha shinobi were introduced to the super bridge builder's super family and allowed to set up in a super spare room on the medium sized super house's super second floor. With good timing because the after effects of using the fox's yokai were beginning to kick into effect and not a second after his head hit the pillow, Naruto was out like a light.

Taking the chance, Kakashi pulled out a blank scroll and wrote down a report for the Sandamie about the Naruto vs. Zabuza battle. After he finished, he summoned his favorite Ninken, a pug named Pakun to deliver the message to the Hokage. The dog jumped out the window and sped off across the water towards the village. Kakashi hoped that the Hokage agreed with finding out more about Naruto from the boy himself when they returned to the Leaf village. But for now he decided he would leave Naruto to his comfort zone, surrounded in the fog of mystery. With that Kakashi headed down stairs, answering the call of Tsunami for dinner.

'I wonder what else will happen on this mission.' the copy-nin mused silently as he flipped the page of his Icha Icha novel. If only he knew what an impact on his students life this mission would deal out.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Hidden away on the third floor of an abandoned hotel on one of Nami no Kuni's Villages was a scout, Takamaru named so by his godfather and as a chunin from Kirigakure no Sato he worked with Kiri's Shitai Shori Han (Corpse Processing Team). The extensive group that made up the Hunter-nin department in the Hidden Mist Village. When the Mist got word that a group of ninja who had members matching the Demon Brother's description were found in Wave country he was sent out to scout them for the hunters to move in to capture or kill them.

This lead to him trailing the Demon Brothers into Hi no Kuni. A little to close to Konoha for comfort but he could deal with it, then they got captured by ninja from said village, with that happening he went to look for his second lead, Momochi Zabuza was reported to work with the Demon Brothers. Presumably it was Meizu and Gozu working for the man but regardless they were together, so he moved on.

He was in the island nations largest city when he felt a group of large chakra presences, so he moved to investigate. Then it came, that god awful feeling that he never felt in his life. It didn't replace, more like it came from and added to the larger signature at the ninja gathering. Moving in he got close enough to see three things happen, a fake Kiri hunter-nin, obviously an accomplice of Zabuza, run off with the man's body, and a red chakra fade away from outlining the younger of the two shinobi from Konoha. It appeared that the first squad had left, trading off with the new group in front of him. And to his surprise, Hatake Kakashi was the leader. By the looks of it the man has taken on an apprentice.

As he made his way back to his base of operations, Takamaru decided to keep a close eye on what was going to happen in the following days, but he wasn't sure if it was for his village or for his own curiosity.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Back home on the ranch, Uchiha Sasuke was once again pissed, and once again it was at Uzumaki Naruto.

He could get it out of his head! Every time something happened in his life, the blonde haired bastard always seemed to take it away from him! It was as if Naruto's purpose in life was to make Sasuke's own life as miserable as possible. If he didn't know better, Sasuke would think that the blonde boy was working for Itachi. But without being absolutely sure, Sasuke was sure to try and stay as unconnected to his fellow Genin as possible. It was for these reasons that after his brother fell to his might in the battle that Sasuke would avenge his clan and the blonde boys death would be on it's way.

These were the thoughts of the only Uchiha in Konoha as he bashed away on one of the training post located in the Uchiha clan compound.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

A short distance away in the Hokage tower a pug arrived and as it wasn't something new to the guards or the Hokage's secretary the animal ran straight into the Fire Shadow's office. After a few words from the dog, it disappeared in a poof of smoke. Leaving behind a scroll that had been carried in the dog's mouth all the way from Nami no kuni. Remarkably there was no saliva on the scroll, the Hokage though for a moment, as he usually did, to wonder how this was so. Unfortunately Kakashi's summons were usually gone by the time he was going to ask, only staying along long enough to do their job before returning to their place in the summon's realm.

The message was read and he had to agree, Naruto needed to be figured out. He wouldn't go as far as to use some of the darker yet available methods to discover the boy's secrets but some light shone into the darkness that surrounded the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi was needed. He set the scroll aside and move on to the next set of paperwork. Hiruzen Sarutobi spent the rest of his night filing thought the various files and documents that he dealt with on a daily basis for the last twelve plus years.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

that's all for this installment folks!

If anyone is willing to become my beta let me know and we work something out, ive been encouraged by a few readers to get one so here is my request. Payment will be made at the rate of first viewing of my chapters as they come out! Isn't that just an amazing deal!

Anyway thanks for reading review if you wish, anonymous reviewing is allowed but review with account is preferred.

And lastly, to all those that graduated recently, congratulations!

Until next time, Timeclue21


	4. Chapter 4: OF Ice, Mist, and Waves

Hello fans, followers, and random readers. Welcome to chapter four. I would like to thank every one who reads my work for reading this story. This A/N will be keep nice a short.

I would like to thank every one who reviews this story, every little bit counts from the "nice work I liked this part the best" to the " I noticed this this and this, thought you should know its like this" everything helps and everything is welcome.

I want to take a chance to publicly apologies to one of my readers he corrected my writing so I jokingly called him a Grammar Nazi, turns out this was a huge offence. I was unaware at the time and would like to say that I am deeply sorry. To anyone I ever offend in the future please do not take things I say literally. I have no intentions of pissing off people who I try to entertain thought my writing.

To any willing members of who are licensed to beta for the site. If you are interested in doing beta work for my stories, let me know. I've received a few request in finding one so I'm submitting my request here and now.

My disclaimer is located on my profile, if you can't go their and think that I own Naruto an army of stick figures will rise out of your left shoe, scale up your leg and wage war on your body. If this displeases you do not allow yourself to believe that I own anything, anime or otherwise.

Enjoy the chapter, Timeclue21.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The shinobi academy of Konoha starts at age six. I was a month and a few days off from being six when I joined the academy. On my sixth birthday I knew three things.

One: the teachers hated me like most of the other villagers.

Two: my fellow classmates had singled me out for persecution, most likely due to thing number one.

Three: the more I did things correctly the worse the hate got.

Taking these three things I started slipping into what a Yamanaka would call an emotional mask. An emotional mask is a tricky thing. To a pro you can switch in and out of them on a dime. The best infiltration experts are people with Multiply Personality Disorder and have all their Personalities working together after all.

To an untrained child who is subconsciously falling behind a mask, issues arises. The main issue is loss. Acting a way leads to habits. Continuing down this path causes this next issue which causes another step to be taken, and sooner or later you have a take over of the mask as the true personality.

On my sixth birthday I was saved from this fate.

On my sixth birthday I met a man who changed my life.

On my sixth birthday I was saved from losing myself forever. And it was all thanks to one man. That man's name was Sensei, or at least all I ever called him. I know his true name but that's a secret for another time.

On my sixth birthday I learned a secret, I learned many of them during my time spent as Sensei's student.

Life went by and I grew. I was stronger, I was better, I was faster, and most importantly, I was me.

On my sixth birthday I began living for the first time in my life.

On my sixth birthday I was given a reason to life.

On my sixth birthday a man acknowledged my existence, not as the son of the Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, not as the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, not as demon, monster, burden or beast, but as my own person. I was acknowledged as Uzumaki Naruto, a person, a human, a life.

On my sixth birthday I was given an opportunity, an opportunity I took and I haven't looked back since.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The winter solstice was a time of celebration. During this time the academy was dismissed, December 18th until January 3rd every year.

Most children spent the break with their family celebrating another year past and the one to come. I spent mine with sensei.

During this time children receive gifts from their parents and family, I got my first kills.

During this time the elders told stories of times long past to the young. I was given commands.

During the time of celebration feast were prepared and not a scrap was left over. I ate rations and never left a scrap.

And I loved every minute of it.

Four kills for me, four tally marks in my little black book. The kunai I used to slice the thought of three men as they slept now resided in a shadow box on my wall. The only decoration in my bedroom. The blood stains have never been removed.

The ninjato that was impaled through the heart of the first women I ever killed is still in service today, the look in her eyes as death greeted her was not something I would have expected. It was relief.

On the first mission I took with sensei, a priestess in training was captured by a trio of bandits. In the end, I killed the men as they slept and granted death to the priestess who's gift that was never meant to be given was stolen from her and only wished to be mercifully killed to keep what honor she still possessed.

I think that's where my hatred of wasted talent originated from. Who knew what this women, who died much before her time, could have achieved? What secrets could she have uncovered? What abilities could she have created.

The first women I killed was named Nori, her name was carved into a rock, which in turn was attached to a chain. That chain sits around the neck of the kitsune statue on my roof, there for me to see every time I go to pray. One day I would like to meet Nori and thank her.

Her smile as she died, thanking me for releasing her from her shammed life is the only thing that has ever kept the nightmares that plague a shinobi away from me.

The only thing that comforts me when I feel alone.

The only thing that has kept me sane all these years.

Ever since Kakashi became my sensei, my memory of her has started fading. And as I woke up, a day after my fight with Momochi Zabuza, I realized one thing.

'I can't remember what Nori's smile looks like any more.'

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Life in Wave Country reminds me of my own life in Konoha. Food is expired and rotten, prices are extremely high, and the people who are well off are the ones out to get you. Yeah life sucked but it was liveable, and hope was coming to the town in the form of Tazuna's bridge.

Kakashi-sensei was wary of me I could see it. Nothing obvious but the signs were there, but life went on. On the first day Kakashi took me outside and handed me a scroll. This seemed to be his ideal way of teaching which suited me fine.

"I've decided to teach you a special jutsu. If it was anyone else I wouldn't dream of teaching this to them but, you're a special case. Inside that scroll you'll find directions to a jutsu that your father created, along with the supplies needed to learn it. The jutsu is called Rasengan and it looks like this."

I watched as Kakashi's chakra became visible and began to spin around in his hand, he took a step forward and rammed the jutsu into a tree. At first only the swirl mark was seen but then the tree gave way and was torn in half by the jutsu's might.

"And that's the end results; I expect you to be finished by the time Zabuza is back. Good luck." and with that the copy-nin returned to the 'super' house.

I opened the scroll and began to read. 'Step one: pop a water balloon with chakra. Hint: spin the chakra in multiply directions.'

"Sounds easy enough," I thought out loud and set to work.

I finished step one at 2:15 on the second day of our stay in Nami no Kuni. I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing my Kenjutsu, or that was the idea but that went right out the window when I saw that my ninjato had a crack in it. A small one only going an eighth of the way through the metal about 4 inches up the blade from the hilt but I was screwed. Too much more damage and my sword would break. So I devoted the time to lowering the time needed to form the stage one Rasengan.

When Tsunami called for dinner, I got to met Inari. It was quite the event.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

A black haired boy dressed in a striped hat, green overalls and a yellow t-shirt came down to the table carrying with him an air of depression. Kakashi and Naruto were talking about his progress with the Rasengan when the boy spoke up.

"Why do you even try! Nothing you do is going to stop Gato! You're not from here and you have no idea what we go through. What I've gone through! Stop getting in our business and just go home!"

Silence rained before Naruto looked up from his meal, a meal he thought was wonderful and hoped that he could get some cooking tips from who he guesses, if he used the Tazuna language, either 'super daughter' or 'super cook'.

"You're right, I don't know what you've gone through. Looking at that picture I can see part of a fourth member of your family has been ripped out. Seeing that he or she isn't here I would guess they were killed by Gato. So you lost someone you held dear to you. I cant relate all to well, all my family is dead and the remains of my clan is scattered across the elemental nations.

In my village, I'm hated for something I couldn't prevent or control from happening. My life has been exactly the way life is here. But I have it much worse as I live this life surrounded by those who hate me and are better off in life."

Inari looked as if he was going to argue. Naruto's guess was it had to do something with not knowing what its like to lose family so he cut the boy off.

"Now Kakashi here could relate to you in the way I can't. When he was four, I believe, he lost his father. The man committed seppuku to redeem himself for failing a mission. The reason he failed was to save the life of his teammates. The mission failure prolonged the Second Great Shinobi War and because of that nearly everyone in the village including the men and women he saved hated him for it.

So yes, you're right, alone we don't fully understand what Gato has done to you, but together we know that pain exactly. Our mission is to defend your grandfather while he builds the bridge. If you want us to leave then fine we'll go first thing tomorrow morning. But without us your grandfather will die, your mother will become a slave to be used by Gato's thugs if not himself until they grow tired of using her and kill her as well. You'll starve to death or be killed some other way and your country will never be freed. Is that what you want?"

Inari at this point had tears running down his face, he slammed his fist on the table before he ran back to his room. Tsunami ran up after him.

"I'm sorry for what my grandson said he-"

"Save your words, I don't need nor want to hear his sob story. People who give up, don't live out their lives to their full potential, sicken me. Who ever named him made a mistake, that miserable child doesn't deserve to say let alone share Inari-sama's name."

Naruto walked out of the house without another word. He would have said something to Kakashi but the man had been lost within his own memories ever since his student mentioned the final act of the Konoha no Shiroi Kiba.

Naruto spent the rest of the night working on stage two of the Rasengan, the next step being popping a rubber ball. The step's hint being power and to spin the chakra in more directions. After about 50 tries later, Naruto fell victim to sleep's sweet embrace.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Raido looked over his team, they had just delivered a parcel heading from their home village to Sazaa town that resided in the northwestern quadrant of Hi no Kuni and was the sixth largest village in Fire Country. The mission had gone well and Team 11 had even gotten some experience when they happened upon a group of bandit trying to rob a merchant who was traveling alone.

On Raido's orders, the Genin had swooped in and killed the seven men. Well Idate killed four and Sasuke three. Sakura had thrown up at the thought of actually killing someone, and when she came up for air passed out at the sight of seven dead men.

Raido wasn't too surprised with Idate. The boy was experienced and already had recorded his first kill during his time as a Genin before joining Team 11. And Sasuke was already accustomed to death as well as being extremely frustrated since leaving Tazuna in the hands of Kakashi and Naruto. The fact that Sasuke showed no negative signs from his kills but seemed happy that he made them might have been a sign to worry. But Raido understood, to a certain degree, how Sasuke's mind worked and he knew what the boy was thinking. Sasuke's muttering of "one step closer, one step closer to your death." sealed the deal.

All in all the message was delivered and hopeful Sakura would see what being a kunoichi was really all about.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The night after Naruto's therapeutic late night training session he was awoken due to his danger sense going off. Instantly, one hand went up grabbing the wrist of whoever stood above him and in one motion pulled and spun so that the attack ended up underneath Naruto's own body. His other hand held a kunai at the offender's throat.

Then Naruto gave the person pinned under him a good look. Black hair and eyes and pale skin that was covered in a pink sleeveless, low-cut kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-colored swirls. Due to the body contact between the two he could tell the person in front of him was a girl, guys just didn't possess breasts. He put his shinobi abilities to work and sensed a fair amount of chakra, more than the average chunin had. He filed that into the back of his head.

"Who are you?" he asked the frighten girl below him. There was no question that the girl was a kunoichi, but he had to know if this was Zabuza's Haku or if it was a random missing-nin.

"M-my name is Haku." she replied.

"Well there's my answer," said Naruto under his breath before making eye contact and speaking up, "You're Momochi Zabuza's apprentice correct?"

Surprising she nodded in the negative, "I'm not an apprentice." she looked off towards the left side inadvertently or purposely allowing for the edge of a fuuin to be seen near where her shoulder and neck met on her right side.

"A obedience seal?" guessed Naruto from what he had seen that was the only piece of Fuuinjutsu he knew containing that pattern of kanji. Haku nodded and looked up at Naruto.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked believing he would kill her as she was on the opposing side of his mission she was surprised.

"Come back here tomorrow at 7 in the morning, I might be able to help you with that seal. If I remove it, would you switch sides and join Konoha?"

"Why wouldn't you kill me?" asked Haku as Naruto got up and began to walk back to Tazuna's house. He looked over his shoulder and said one thing before walking away.

"I see potential in you, and I hate seeing potential go to waste." with that said, Naruto disappeared into the tree tops.

Watching him leave Haku promised herself, 'tomorrow at seven, I'll be there.' with that she grabbed her basket of herbs and started towards Zabuza's hideout. Haku was too gentle to poison someone who was hurt, but she could bring herself to heal her 'Master' just enough that he would only be able to use his body at full power for a small amount of time. Far more than enough to be already locked in combat before he realized he had been falsely healed, if he even identified Haku's treachery. It wasn't uncommon to re-injure freshly healed injuries after all.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

When Naruto returned, he went to Kakashi and told him about meeting Haku, Kakashi told him that he would be responsible for Haku's actions but otherwise gave him the green light. Then he set up the spare room they were sleeping in for a seal removal. With a basic seal needed to be overpowered and removed the process was simple and within twenty minutes he was done.

The rest of the day was spent watching Naruto train in the stage two Rasengan and reading his precious.

After another wonderful and peaceful dinner, due to Inari being absent for the night's meal, Kakashi sent another update to the Hokage, letting him know about the deal with Haku. He summoned another dog, this one was a tan colored dog with rings around his eyes and the kanji for shinobi on his brow. The dogs name was Bisuke and oddly enough he was one of the least summoned pack members. Kakashi tried to keep the rotation up and use each dog equally but he found that he worked best with Pakkun and Buru, a large black bull dog who didn't possess the ability to speak the human tounge and worked well with Pakkun.

After speaking with Bisuke the dog left and Kakashi settled in for the night. His last thoughts being, 'Never a dull moment with Naruto around.'

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Earlier that afternoon Haku had arrived at Zabuza hideout. She made and applied the healing salves to the nuke-nin's body. Just as she finished up, Gato arrived and started yelling at Zabuza. That was acceptable but when the short man moved to hit Zabuza. Haku was there in a instant blocking him by grabbing his wrist. She gripped so tightly she almost broke it.

"You will not touch Zabuza-sama" she fought down a gag, referring to a man who basically enslaved her after promising her life as master in her made her sick. Having to verbally say it or face pain from the obedience seal on her shoulder blade was a torture she never wished to experience again. The first and only time had been when she was order to make her first kill, it just so happened that that was the day that Zabuza had started to treat her less and less like a person and more and more like a tool. She was even alright with being used a slave, but when she was dehumanized, Haku wouldn't have it. From then on her acting level rose and rose, when she got to Konoha she was going to ask if she could join what ever the infiltration wing of Konoha's military was called if she ever got the chance.

Haku thought herself to be a great spy, and infiltration was a breeze when you could move around in her Makyo Hyosho (Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals) without being seen.

Gato and his thugs left after Haku stopped the man's thugs from attacking her due to her assault of their boss with minimal effort. Senbon might not look imposing next to say a katana but they sure were strong. Strong enough to hold back a katana as she had just demonstrated.

After they left Haku slipped into her small room that Zabuza had given her for privacy. She began to pack what she needed. Shinobi things could be left and restocked in Konoha, clothing as well. In the end she only had what she needed for her pet rabbit, who was un-inspirationally named Usagi (Rabbit). With her bag packed, Haku settled in early, she would need to be out of the hideout before Zabuza awakened.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

"Ah shit," Naruto mumbled under his breath, "Haku's obedience seal would have a self destruct if removed feature. Going to have to ask Kakashi-sensei to change the removal up a bit, hopeful it's do able at his level" on his way to find the copy-nin he reviewed what had happened leading up to now.

Before arriving at the house Haku met up with Naruto at seven in the morning, in all actuality she had been there since 6:45, it never hurt to be a bit early to a life changing event. When Naruto arrived she sent out Usagi, when Naruto picked her pet up and called out to her, Proving that he was really the not so Genin-level Genin, she came out. The duo headed to Tazuna's house were they began the final steps to freeing her from Zabuza's seal. That's were the plan all went to hell. Once Naruto got a good look at the seal he discovered three things.

First: he was right, it was an obedience seal. Similar to the Hyuuga caged bird seal, at just a flick of the hands the sealed person would be launched into a world of pain unlike any other.

Second: there was an anti-removal seal. In laymen's terms it meant that if you remove this the wrong way then it goes boom. This made removal difficult, doable but difficult.

Third: lucky it was deactivated but a locator seal was included in the mix, it would allow a person with the corresponding seal to has a sense of what direction the sealed person was in. the range was limited, the furthest Naruto had ever heard of was 300 feet.

Add this all together and you had a difficult challenge that Naruto knew he couldn't complete alone. He was really go at Fuuinjutsu but so far he hadn't done creations on the fly. Nor had he done any high level sealing without a guide to show him how to. So in came Kakashi, who knew the art of Fuuinjutsu better than anyone in the village sans two other shinobi, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Gama Sannin Jiraiya. The two elder shinobi were in a whole other league then he was though.

So, with that on his mind, Kakashi spent the morning fixing, adjusting and adding on the removal seal to free Haku from slavery. During this time he had Naruto outside working on the Rasengan. At the rate he was progressing Kakashi figured his student would have this down by the time Zabuza was back, or at least he would be close to finishing it. Then he would use it in the battle and either it would back fire and blow up injuring both his opponent and himself or it would work and be Naruto would just have to master quickly starting up the swirling ball of chakra induced doom, death, and destruction… Hey! Don't look at him like that! That's what Kushina named it, Kakashi agreed whole heartily but that's besides the point.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

"HAKU! Where the hell are you Haku!" shouted the Demon of the Hidden Mist. His tool was missing and he was pissed. Searching and sensing was done, damn it, he even went to Gato in an attempt to scare the man into telling him were Haku went. Unfortunately the corrupted business man had no clue where the child was. What was worst was the fat bastard was now underestimating his skills even more. If this continued Zabuza knew he would be sold out to the Kiri hunter-nin and this time it wouldn't be Haku there to 'capture' him.

Returning to his hideout he barged into Haku small room once again. That's when he noticed something, that rabbit he used for substitutions he had let Haku keep as a 'pet' was missing too.

"So she finally built up the courage to leave. Hmpft, I'm surprised she didn't make a move sooner. Well looks like I'll need to pick up a new tool once I'm done here." without a second thought Zabuza activated the obedience seal.

Given enough time the sealed person would die due to shock pain and the kill switch going off if the obedience seal stayed on for more than ten minutes. Ten minutes being the average time someone without a high pain tolerance could withstand the seal before death occurred, so it was just convenient at that point.

Zabuza left to tell Gato of his discovery and to have him hire on a partner, hopefully they wouldn't take to long to arrive. He was itching to get a rematch with the Kakashi look alike as well as get some action against the man himself.

In order to do both Zabuza wanted a B-rank missing nin to be hired on. They would last long enough to get his battle with the copy-nin over with and still get to fight the blonde brat. The kid was a jinchuriki, he had enough chakra and stamina to go a few rounds.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

It had been three days and in those three days Sasuke Uchiha had been in two different fights, one against bandits and another versus a bear that walked into their camp looking for food on the way back to Konoha while he was on watch duty.

Of course that was okay, the bandits wouldn't help him unlock his Sharingan and the bear wasn't much better besides being able to take more damage before going down. But he was still pissed, pissed at Tazuna for lying to the village and wasting his time. If the man needed help he should have set up a payment plan. The Hokage was a nice man and would probably agree to it

Pissed at his Sensei for falling out of said man's mission. They could have handled it. Sure Sakura was a waste of space but Idate was fast, faster than Sasuke himself as much as he loathed to admit it. Besides once they got into a real fight his eyes would be activated and then it would be just to easy from there on out.

Pissed at the Hokage for sending in the person who was second on his kill list to do a mission his squad wasn't allowed to do. What made the dobe, he still refused to think of the Uzumaki as anything but, and the loser of a Jounin that did not want the honor of training the last Uchiha better than them. He was the god damned Prince of Konoha! He had already decided that his blood was the next best thing to the blood of the gods, what more could a sensei want? What did that Jounin see in the blonde. Sure he would work with weaklings but Sasuke would use team work as well. As long as the people on his team were as strong as him and would listen to his ever command as if they were puppets. Is that to much to ask for?

"Certainly not", Sasuke reassured himself under his breath.

"Did you say something Sasuke-kun?" ask the female member of squad Eleven.

"Hnn" he replied as he continued to live up to the title given to him by Naruto; Sasuke the Emo Prince of Konoha.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

The finishing touches went on around 9:30 in the morning and just moment away from activating their counterseal Haku began to scream.

"Oh shit" said Kakashi, using Naruto's choice words when he fist saw the seal, speaking of his student, Naruto flew through the only window in the room and took a look at the seal on Haku's shoulder.

"Looks like Zabuza is on to us." the boy received a nod as Kakashi started feeding chakra into the seal. After three minutes the seals other functions were destroyed but the pain was still there.

Normally any ninja is trained to withstand pain, but when you're only controlled by the threat of pain that lesson goes on the self to be forgotten and never taught. So instead of the 10 minutes they expected to have, it was more like five.

"We're going to have to override the chakra in Haku's seal. I'll drain it but you're going to have to fill it. Worst case scenario, fill it with a mix of your's and the Kyuubi's chakra. Be careful though, that has never been done or at least not to my knowledge so I don't know what will happen." Kakashi grabbed Haku and they moved outside to the he began to draw a new seal, one that would drain the seal of it's chakra without removing it.

On Kakashi order Naruto began to feel his chakra into Haku. At first it was working but at the half way point, Murphy's law kicked in and the process stopped. "Well here goes nothing," said the copy-nin before locking eyes with Naruto, "Do it now!"

Naruto quickly nodded in confirmation and closed his eyes focusing on the beast held within him. 'Kyuubi, I need some of your chakra.'

…

'Yes, I do. Damn it!'

…

'I don't care if your nap was interrupted this is important!"

…

"For the love of Inari-sama just give me some yokai already!'

Instead of replying to him, the kitsune started pumping in yokai which Naruto channeled through his arms directly into the seal. At this point the pain was to much and Haku blacked out. Luckily in the next minute the process was finished and Naruto flushed out the Kyuubi's yokai, replacing it with his own chakra and reabsorbing his tenant's. Afterwards it was simple to dispel the obedience seal.

Haku was taken back up to the house to lay down. Kakashi expected her to awaken by the next day possible later. And while she wouldn't be able to fight in the upcoming battle should be adequate guard duty for the house and Tazuna's family during what would come to be called in the history books of Nami no Kuni, The Battle of the Bridge.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

All done and I'm happy with it. A nice transition chapter to keep to story going.

Someone guessed who Naruto's first sensei was and it got me wondering who else do people think taught Naruto, leave a review with your guess and any compliment, questions or complaints you had.

On a final note I hope you all liked the first two sections, I'm not quite sure were I got the inspiration for them but they flowed and up for you to enjoy

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

With hugs, love, and other fuzzy things, Timeclue21


	5. Chapter 5: The Start of Something New

Hello friends! Welcome to chapter five. Sorry for being gone forever, halfway through typing this chapter I left for a 5 day vacation with my family followed two days later by a 9 day cruise with my cousins. But now I'm back and full of ideas for this and another story I've been creating in the world I visit when ever I zone out, as I like to call this place La La Land.

Then just as I was putting the finishing touches on this chapter my computer crashes and all my hard work goes out the window, in anger I decided to put this off till school started. So here we go again!

I would like to thank all that have reviewed, favorite-ed, fallowed and subscribed to this story for doing so, as well as those who did the latter three to my account. I've decided that I'll acknowledge one review per chapter to clarify a certain point. So here is chapter five's "review corner".

Some one in the reviews said that Haku should be placed under Naruto's clan protection. The only issue is, well, Naruto has no clan left, there is at most 4 (Nagato, Tayuya, Karin, and I think the sky ninja leader dude is one) known Uzumaki members left and he's the only one in Konoha. So no can do. Naruto has no clan, clan powers, ability to create a clan or a clan compound (even with his apparent complex turned mini-mansion) to qualify as a clan in Konoha.

In other news:

Apparently those like myself who were the conspiracy theorist and thought that Tobi was Obito all along are out celebrating. I like my celebratory cake to be a type of pie, a large thin and well done pizza pie to be exact, and lo and behold what I had for dinner when the latest issue came put was just that. I feel like the ramen gods… or rather the pizza gods smiled on my that night

Anyway that sums up what I wanted to mention up here anything else will be at the bottom.

Enjoy!

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Eleven days after the first battle for the freedom of wave, Gato came through with Zabuza's request and hired him a new teammate. He had just spoken with the man and was headed to the women's temporary room, upon entering he recognized her. She was a kunoichi from Iwagakure, as an ex-member of the explosion corps. She had decided to leave her home village after the grand escape of Deidara, Iwa's so called mad bomber. Her decision was made not because of hatred of her home or due to wanting to join her ex-corps mate. It was because she had become ostracized by her friends and family as they all feared she might snap next. She turned in her resignation papers but wasn't approved to receive early retirement, so she left and up until now had done a pretty good job of staying under the radar.

Her name, Masami Akane. She left Iwa as a chunin and as a possessor of the Explosion release was given the title of a A-rank shinobi. There was a pretty bounty on her head of 27 million Ryo as well, not that that was a surprise to anyone. The Explosion release was Iwa's equivalent to say a dojustu in Konoha. When it wasn't under their control, they wanted it back and didn't want another nation getting a hold of it.

"So you're the hired help?" Zabuza's gruff voice emitted from beneath his bandaged face.

Not missing a beat and obviously knowing the man was there, she answered without turning around from where she was unsealing some belongings. "Yeah I'm here. What of it demon man? Eh forget it, so Gato said I'm here to help you kill some ninja. So who are the unlucky team that's gonna be dead soon?"

"Hatake Kakashi and his apprentice Uzumaki Naruto." Her eyes lit up at the mention of the first name, "and don't get your hopes up your fighting the kid. And don't think I'm selling you short either while I'm fighting the Copy-nin. You're going to be keeping Konoha's jinchuriki busy."

It took Akane a few seconds to process this little jewel of information before she went wide eyes "Konoha's jinchuriki… that would mean that he holds the Kyuubi no Yoko.

The Demon of the Mist had a grim look in his eyes "He used the beast's power to drive me off and I have a feeling the brat was holding back. You know about a jinchuriki's tailed forms. Iwa has or at least had last time I checked, two of them. The kid didn't even break out the first tail. It felt nearly as half as powerful as Yagura was when I tried to kill him. You are in for one hell of a showdown," with that said Zabuza left, before he passed through the door he looked over his shoulder and said "Be ready, we attack at eight hundred hours in two days times" with that Zabuza departed.

Akane sat down on the bed provided for her still in somewhat of a shocked state. 'A jinchuriki, the fucking Kyuubi Jinchuriki on top of that. I'm so screwed.' These thoughts stemmed from what she knew of Roshi and Han, jinchuriki of the Yonbi and Gobi respectively. The first was one of if not the strongest ninja in the history Iwa that wasn't a Kage and the later was practical a robotic killing machine. "No," she thought out loud, "Definitely was a robotic killing machine." the scars on her back from his steam release justu that she had to deal with ever since her escape from Tsuchi no Kuni were proof of that.

She thanked Kami every day that the jinchuriki didn't have clearance to chase her out of the Land of Earth and she cursed Kami every day that she ran into the Five Tailed Jinchuriki as she left the outer limits of Iwagakure. It was only thanks to her explosive release that she managed to block the mountain pass she had planed on using in her escape of the Land of Earth and trapped Han behind the fallen rock. Akane had no doubt in her mind that if she hadn't blocked the mountain pass behind her she would have never made it out of her homeland alive. But then again if she hadn't blocked the pass maybe the steam release attack Han had launched wouldn't had blasted the broken rock towards her and decorated her back with the scars that were there today.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Back home on the ranch, Kakashi, Naruto, and Haku were training. Well Naruto and Haku were sparing while Kakashi watched over them.

The two Konoha shinobi wanted to get a feel of how Haku was as a ninja. As such, Kakashi had them spar. He was as intrigued on how good Haku was. Just as he was on how Naruto went about dealing with the long thought extinct Hyoton release. Kakashi had to say, for having to create her own, well everything Haku was on hell of a kunoichi.

The match had started and Haku had immediately started a chain of one handed hand signs, which was down right crazy, Kakashi couldn't even used those. Mainly because he never actually created anything and the Chidori/ Raikiri were a bit to strong and wild to used them with. But then again maybe it could be done with the Chidori. That would require more thought and some input from Haku later on.

Anyway, after Haku's one handed seals a dome of ice mirrors had emerged from the wet ground and saturated air around her and surrounded Naruto, then she entered the ice mirrors and started flying around at high speed pelting Naruto with Hyoton justu created senbon needles. Kakashi's student was doing well, continuously dodging until he was hit by a single senbon. At that point, he went up in smoke.

'Your kid's really taking after me. Using shadow clones to switch with to see how a justu works. You would be proud of your son sensei."

Speaking of Kakashi's sensei and Naruto's father, the justu the man created was being powered up by Naruto. The power and rotation was there but Kakashi could tell the justu wasn't mastered. But for what Naruto had in mind, if his stare at the ice mirror closest to him was anything to go by, it would do just fine.

He looked down at the justu in his hand for a moment before looking back up and zeroing in on his target and then he was off. Quickly covering the 10 yards between himself and his target he thrust his hand out and called out the justu's name.

"Rasengan!" the jutsu touched the mirror, then exploded. It successful destroyed the mirror, but also sent Naruto flying back almost to where he started the justu. Luckily he was able to right himself in the air and land on his feet. The reason for this being that Haku had been on the move once her mirror fell, and when Naruto landed the ice was already forming for Haku's third justu.

"Hissatsu Hyoso!" (Certain-Kill Ice Spears). The ice flew up and attacked Naruto. As said before his luck kept him relatively safe, leaving him with cuts along his legs and feet and a stab like slash on his left calf muscle. Naruto retreated into the woods with a quick Kawarimi a log falling back into the ice spears as well as a bit of blood.

Haku cut off the feed of chakra into the spears causing her ice to stop growing, it would now act as normal ice and start melting as ice naturally would. This worked well for Tazuna's family. Seeing as for at least the next few weeks or so, they wouldn't need to buy ice.

Back to the action, Naruto had channeled the Kyuubi's chakra minutely to heal the damage dealt to his calf muscle quickly. He would have to be careful not to re-injure the leg but he should be good for now and have his leg at tip top shape tomorrow morning.

Naruto settled into his Arashinome no Mai stance quickly and waited for Haku to enter the space he was in. The trees around them would both hinder and help both of their competence. Naruto would have to be exceptionally careful with his chipped sword.

Haku landed on a tree branch above Naruto and about 10 feet away and the fight was on. Senbon needles came flying down upon everyone's favorite blonde as they were deflected by his ninjato or dodged. When Haku paused her throwing, she used the Sensatsu Suisho (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death). Naruto also used a justu, and of course it was the Kanashibari. The technique made contact and that was all Naruto needed. He rushed forward and went for a punch with his left hand, only to stop and have to block an ice spike that formed in front of him.

Sadly this was a mistake, a very big mistake, because it had happened. The ninjato Naruto received from Sensei had snapped. Not to be distracted and give Haku a win Naruto threw the handle of his broken weapon with its four to five inches of steal left on it at his opponent to buy him some time. He flipped back utilizing his trademark justu casting song and dance. When he landed, he unleashed a very powerful and chakra overloaded Futon: Daitoppawhich had the effect of throwing Haku through the air for less than a second before she crash into a tree and was nearly pushed through the tree itself from the force of the wind.

The battle would have continued but Kakashi dropped down from his perch and called the match in Naruto's favor. The boy shrugged off Kakashi's hand and moved to reclaim his sword which was now in two pieces. He grabbed the two pieces and left, heading back to the house. Kakashi went up to where Haku was sitting, watching Naruto go with a air of depression hanging around her head. Kakashi joined her on the tree branch and once Naruto's figure disappeared Haku looked towards Kakashi and spoke.

"Di- did I do something wrong?" Kakashi could see the look in her eyes, she looked lost and scared. 'Probably thinks Naruto is going to abandon her. Well lets see if I can brighten her spirit a bit.'

"Don't worry Haku. Naruto isn't upset with you. That ninjato holds a lot of sentimental value to him and he's sad to see it's broken. Give him some time and he'll be back to normal, I guarantee it." Kakashi said with his signature eye smile. He got up, jumped down and followed his students back through the brush back to Tazuna's super house.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

**(10 days after Naruto's fight with Zabuza)**

The morning had arrived and Inari sat up in his mother's room, sitting in one of windows that over looked the front of the house and the road back to the town that his family lived in. Watching Team 7 plus one heading towards a fight he was sure would have meant certain death, but not anymore. Even if he was cold and somewhat withdrawn, Naruto had changed Inari. There was just something about him, it was in the very air surrounding the blonde boy. After their first and rather bad conversation, Inari felt the need to speak to Naruto again. The next time he had a chance to speak with Naruto was when had returned with his freshly broken ninjato. Inari would have thought the elder boy would just brush past him but instead he told something the relit the hope in the younger child. Hope that had been smothered by Gato's hostile take over of Nami no Kuni and the death of Kaiza. Inari would never forget what Naruto had told him after he ask why he was smiling with a broken sword.

"Sometimes in life you lose things you never wished to lose. You can't let these things hold you back. I'm not saying you'll forget your loss but at a certain point you have to move on or you'll never reach your full potential. Just because my sword, a gift from a man who taught me nearly everything I know, is broken doesn't mean anything. I'll find a new sword and use that one just as I used this one. I don't have to give up on life just because I suffered one loss. No matter how much the thing that I lost mattered to me."

Naruto had walked on into the super house leaving Inari on the front steps of his home. While Naruto went to store the broken ninjato, Inari was lost in his thoughts. These thoughts were on the man who he thought of as a father, Kaiza. The man who inadvertently took sent the hope of Wave country to death when he was killed by Gato. While different in so many ways Naruto had given Inari hope. He didn't reignite the hope the had died with Kaiza, but rather gave Inari a new kind of hope.

Naruto's brand of hope was closer to revenge than anything else. In a way it was, at least, in Inari's young mind. Just because something was taken from you didn't mean you had to give up on it. You can take the old and make it yours, make it new, make it better, and make it stronger.

When Kakashi had told the bridge builder's super family about the high probability of the house being attacked Inari already knew what he was going to do. And if he died doing so, well, he would die with a smile on his face. Knowing his mom was safe and that when he saw Kaiza in Kami's realm, the man he thought of as a father would be proud of him. While his mother would be sad for a long time to come he knew he was making the right choice, he could feel it.

Naruto turned back to look at the house and saw Inari up in the window, he lifted up his hand and using the 'Ninja arts: eye-smile technique' he shot Inari a thumbs up. From Inari's stand point at that moment he didn't see Naruto, instead he saw Kaiza, it only lasted for a moment for when Inari blinked the image was gone, but a gentle breeze came through the window and ruffled Inari's hair just like Kaiza use to do. He closed his eyes and allowed the feeling to engrave itself in his mind. If anyone asked the boy would tell them that at this moment, nature itself, the land, sea, and air knew that His homeland was about to regain it's freedom.

When Inari opened his eyes back up he didn't see the ninja squad anymore but he knew that it wasn't the last he would see of them. If Inari wasn't totally sure on the decision he just made, he was now. He would protect his mother, his most precious person if it was the last thing he ever did. And he would do so willingly and with a smile on his face.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

When Team Seven arrived at the bridge, they could see the mist had already rolled in, signifying that Zabuza and who ever was with him was already here and awaiting their arrival. Thankfully it was a Sunday and the bridge's workforce had it day off to spend with their families. The only gratitude that Tazuna could afford to give to his mostly dedicated men and women.

Kakashi and Naruto were fully prepared for war and when they reached the current middle of the unfinished bridge the fog began to lift. Only just enough so that their adversaries were visible.

"So nice to see you again, Akane." spoke Cyclopes number one

"Believe me Kakashi, the pleasure is all mine." spat out the lone kunoichi on the bridge.

"You know her, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto in a quite voice.

"I'm sure you know who she is from the bingo book so I'll save you the details but yes I know her. I was sent into the Land of Birds to kill off a noble from the Land of Earth and she was the man's bodyguard. Suffice to say the man died and she ran off licking her wounds. Next time I heard of her was when I saw her in the bingo book. But enough of this," Kakashi stopped his whispering and spoke out loud once more, "So tell me, who wishes to fight the dog and who wishes to fight the fox?"

Akane took a step forward but was grabbed by Zabuza, he gave her a look that stopped her from blowing up his right hand and said, "Stick to the plan, maybe you'll finish before I do and be able to land the kill shot on Hatake."

"Fine, don't lose the body, I could use the money my old home would give for it." Zabuza only grunted and Akane moved to the right, the side Naruto was standing on. On the simple command of "Go", he was off to face one explosive lady.

Within moments the mist had been refilled and the two battles began. Tazuna took his chance to run back towards the island so that he was far enough to be out of sight but close enough to hear the fighting. And fight they did.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Raido let out a sigh, the day had come when Sasuke decided to start demanding things. By things he meant jutsu in all way shape and form. On their last mission, there was a rather skilled bandit. He obliviously had run-ins with shinobi before and was exceptionally well trained for a man of his 'line of work'. So much so that Raido had to step in and prevent too much damage from being inflicted on the Council's boy-toy.

Doing so pissed off the Uchiha because the boy was of the belief that the fight against whatever the man's name was would unlock his Sharingan. In retribution, the brat demanded to be taught everything that his sensei knew. Fortunately Raido's jutsu with crows were omitted from that request. To some, it would strike them as odd, but to those who ever had worked with Uchiha Itachi, they would know why. Itachi had a fondness of using crows in battle. Usually it was in the form of a Genjutsu, and anything Itachi was on Sasuke's 'must kill' list. A list that actually existed and was in Sasuke's possession and handwriting. He had seen it when he brok… was surveying his students homes.

To keep the brat happy, Raido took out a scroll which he had prepared with a list of 5 fire jutsu. All of which could be found in the Uchiha's library… or at least could have been before the clans' possessions were robbed… he meant donated by the all but completely deceased clan of jutsu robbers.

He had no issue with this of course. It just made dealing with the little brat a bit easier in Raido's humble opinion. He just didn't think he would be the one handing out the jutsu to the kid when he helped raid the Uchiha's vast array of Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and to a much lesser degree Taijutsu.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

From his perch on the hilltop overlooking the bridge, Takamaru looked through a pair of binoculars. One hand holding them up as his other held a pen hovering above a notepad. A few things were already written down; notes on the clearing that played host to the battle nearly a week and a half ago, a mention on the names of the combatants, and a few other little things like the strange felling of the blond child's chakra.

As soon as the battles started, he was disappointed but not surprised in the slightest that Zabuza had covered his area of battle in a thick mist. A few more words found a home on the open page of his notebook. Moving over from the battle between the Ex-Anbu captains, he began to watch the fight between Kakashi's student and who he recognized as Masami Akane.

She charged forward, obviously hoping to land a few explosive hits on the blonde but it seemed he had no intention of being hit. Whether it being just his fighting style or having knowledge of who he was fighting was left to be determined.

The kid started doing backwards he landed, he was 10 feet behind where he started. Akane was where he had started and the boy's hands were in the snake handsign. Seeing this and feeling the chakra flare, Takamaru watched as Akane flipped through as set of handsigns at high-speed, her hands a blur.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!" called out the shinobi. In response the kunoichi stomped hard on the cement ground of the bridge.

"Doton: Doryuheki!" From the cement a wall of solid rock jutted out and protected the kunoichi from the strong winds. Unfortunately they also blocked the view of the shinobi. Takamaru watched as the apprentice charged up a jutsu he had only heard of. He almost didn't believe his eyes. If it wasn't for the fact that only this one jutsu looked like what hovered just centimeters above the blonds palm. The blonde charged forward and when he reached the wall he called out the legendary jutsu.

"Rasengan!" the swirling ball of chakra drilled into and than blasted the earth style wall to pebbles and other small chunks of rock. All of which flew right at Akane. The kunoichi jumped out of the way, but not before she was hit with the remains of her defensive jutsu. A quick replacement left a bag of concrete mix to be obliterated.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

*Knock Knock Knock* there was no answer.

*Knock Knock Knock* once more only silence.

***Knock Knock Knock*** this time the knocks were more like pounds. The wooden door groaned under the strikes. It was well made but old and was beginning to lose it strength. Tsunami hoped that if she kept quiet the two thugs would give up. She stood in the kitchen, with a clear view of the door, and the space above it where Haku had placed herself. It was truly a sight to behold when the young girl actually stood on the wall as if it was a normal thing,

'For ninja, I guess it must be.'

"Hey we know you're in there!" "Yah! Open up already!" came the cries from out side. Then in a lower but not by much voice the first speaker spoke again

"Enough of this, kick the door down, would ya Waraji."

"He he. Sure, I got this."

In the span of ten seconds 4 things happened at once.

First the door was separated from its frame,

By the third second, Tsunami ducked behind the counter, and Inari who was watching from the stairs ran up to the top but in a spot he could still see what was happening. Haku began a set of handsigns.

By 5 seconds the men, Gato's head bodyguards, took a step into the house, and Haku called out her justu

**(A/N: Japanese names are annoying to find so this is the new method for jutsu calling.)**

"Hyoton: Certain-Kill Ice Spears!"

Before Waraji or Zori could react, as the name suggests, giant spears of ice rose from the puddle of water. Haku had laid it out when she saw the thugs emerge from the tree line. And sans a melting and cleanup duty, the fight for a hostage was over and Gato was down two men. Not that it really mattered all too much in the plans of Gato. After all, if all went well, the man would be gone by the time the sun went down.

Haku wanted to make a run for the bridge to help her new comrades but Kakashi had told her to keep the place on lock down unless the two members of Team 7 came back… Now that she thought about it, how was she supposed to keep a building in lock down without a door.

And thus the victors of the battle of the bridge would return to the super house to find two dead thugs on the porch and a wall of ice stuck in the doorway.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

If one were to look upon the bridge, they would see two fights were going on. Not just any fights, but a duet of ninja fights. Okay, scratch that, they would see one shinobi on one side of the bridge and a shit ton of fog on the other.

This was the situation Akane found herself in.

'Tell me I have to fight the copy-nin's apprentice, I can do that. Tell me the kid's the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, yeah that's survivable. Turn that kid into a minute Fourth Hokage, Rasengan and all! Fuck this! I'm done! I'll just wait til Gato shows up and if somehow that fat gangster wannabe is still alive, I'll punch him so hard in his sack that his nuts will explode out his ass!

From her hiding place under the bridge, she released her hold, not using charka to hold her up to keep the chances of the jinchuriki from finding her and fell down to the ocean, already thinking up a plan to get the hell outta Wave country.

'A quick swim to the island, camp out on the far side of this place until the economy stirs back up and then I'm on the first ship to the Land of Seas. They must have a pirate issue that I can get some protection money out of.'

Akane landed in the water safely in a legs pointed down, arms crossed over he chest kinda fashion. Sadly, she wasn't home free. There, on the water stood Naruto, in his hands was a plank of wood. She sensed a bit of chakra come off the boy and then he fell apart into water. Akane last thoughts were 'finished by a fucking water clone!' Before the explosive tag on the wooden board detonated. Moments later the water had a tint of red, as wooden splinters rose to the waters surface. Masami Akane would never be seen from again. Takamaru would report to Kiri that she was killed by the apprentice of Hatake Kakashi. Only adding both bounty and rank to the bingo book page he had earned himself on this trip to Nami no Kuni.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Naruto heard the explosion go off and knew his fight had been won. He began to head into the mist when he herd the sounds of many dogs and hundreds of birds. It was a sound he had heard only a few times before, while on different missions where Kakashi had used his prized Chidori to finish a fight. If he was using it then right about… now!

A muffled scream came from the now fading mist to reveal the Demon of the Hidden Mist held down by Kakashi's dog pack and sporting a gaping hole in his chest. A hole currently vacated with Kakashi's arm up to the elbow. With a sickening and rather gory pop, more like a squelch, Kakashi freed his arm and the demon of the mist died before he hit the ground of the bridge. This is not to say Kakashi wasn't wounded, but he was good to go still. The fight had been mentally exhausting but not physically. Nor did it take too much chakra to enhance his senses of smell and hearing. Kakashi turned his head to Naruto and gave him an eye-smile and thumbs up. The man's hand went towards his vest but it stopped before it got there due to the sound of a short man's voice.

"So the Demon of the Mist fell to the hands of you two. How wonderful. You see I never meant to pay that foolish baby-demon. It's much cheaper to kill him off with a mob of thugs once they are all tired out from their fights, the bounty money is good too."

"So this is Gato, he's… shorter than what I expected from what Haku told us but other than that she was spot on. Don't you agree sensei?" all Kakashi did was nod.

Gato spoke once more just as loud but aimed more towards his hired gang then the Konoha Ninja. "The first man to bring me their heads will be rewarded with the full payload from Zabuza's bounty!" Gato didn't mean a word of that last part but the thugs didn't know that and they began to charge at the two shinobi. As the men began their charge over to the shinobi, Naruto walked over to where Kakashi stood and picked up the Kubikiribocho.

"So I *cough* guess it's a your sword for *cough* mine kind of deal, eh kid? The kubikiri- *cough* bocho, the decapitating carving knife, can restore itself to its former shape by absorbing *cough* the iron out of blood. There might be other abilities as this was the last blade made for the seven swordsmen and the blacksmith passed *cough* before he could finish testing out the blade. I couldn't figure out any abilities and if any of my predecessors did, they obviously aren't *cough* sharing. Good luck kid, may your steel stay sharp."

And with that finally eulogy Momochi Zabuza finally passed on. Leaving Naruto with much more than a replacement blade.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

A few days after the battle for the bridge, Team 7 plus one left Nami on the recently completed bridge. It had seemed like the entire country's population had came out and lent a hand in the bridge's completion. Resulting in the bridge being finished a full two weeks ahead of schedule. The people named it the Great Naruto Bridge on Tazuna and Inari's insistence as they watched the group leave the country as the bridge's first crossers.

Soon enough the walls that surround the Village Hidden in the Leaves came into view marking the group's returned to Konoha. Well two of them returned, for the female of the group this was her first time behind or even within viewing distance of the walls the First built.

Saving sight seeing for later, the trio moved towards to the Hokage Tower where they were ushered in without wait and Kakashi began the verbal report, with input from Naruto and to a lesser degree, Haku, when necessary. After that was finished Kakashi walked up to the desk and the two elder shinobi began to speak in whispers, to low for Haku or even Naruto with his somewhat enhanced hearing. He was no dog but he had hearing that far surpassed a normal human's sense of the hearing. Even without hearing them talk, Haku knew that they were talking about her. If the fact Hiruzen had been looking right at her during the hushed conversation was anything to go by. The Hokage looked at his desk and began writing down on a form of some kind. A moment later Kakashi backed off, and the Third looked up at her. She was surprised to see kindness and warmth in his old eyes opposed to the icy coldness that she was use to see in the eyes of the one she would call master. It reminded her of her parents before she, she quickly crushed those thoughts.

"Right well now onto you Miss Haku, I have a proposition for you. If I remember correctly you agreed to join my village and I've gone ahead to fill out the paper work needed for you to become a Genin. Now onto my idea. How would you like to join Kakashi and Naruto as the third member of Team Seven?"

"I… I would like that very much Hokage-sama." answered Haku, bowing deeply.

"Rise child, your use of my title is good enough to honor this old man. Welcome to the Leaf, I hope you Will of Fire will start to burn brightly, but hopeful it doesn't burn too hot. Wouldn't want to melt your ice now would we?"

When Haku looked up, the Hokage was sitting turned in his chair the look out at the village. Well slouching back with his pipe in mouth and a smile upon his lips. She found it hard to believe that this man, who looked as old as the village itself, and was known as the Kami no Shinobi could act so… grandfatherly was the only term she thought of that correctly captured all that the Hokage was.

"Dismissed" said the old man tossing something at Haku, Team seven, now three ninja strong, bowed slightly and left the office. When Haku looked down she saw that she was now the possessor of a Konoha hitai-ate. And for some odd reason it felt… right.

Haku wasn't aware when Kakashi left or that he had told them to meet there tomorrow at 8. She didn't notice that she continued to follow Naruto and she didn't notice they were sitting down until her vision snapped back into fully functioning. But when she did she was welcome to a sight she would never forget, the village at sunset from on top of the Yondaime's head. She looked to her left at Naruto who seemed to be in meditation not wishing to disturb him she looked out at the village. And as she looked over the village she began to think of what she had been feeling since the meeting and her induction into Konoha's military.

The village was better than any other place she had been. In the next few weeks, Haku would come to identify this feeling. It was something she hadn't felt since Zabuza tricked her with it, acceptance. Only this time the acceptance was real. Konoha accepted her, the Hokage accepted her, Kakashi-sensei accepted her but most importantly in her eyes at least, the boy next to her accepted her, but Naruto did more than that.

At first he accepted her because he saw the potential that Zabuza had seen in her that fateful day on the bridge. But unlike him the boy next to her didn't want a tool, a weapon, a slave. He wanted to see her grow to her full potential nothing more, nothing less. This boy had changed her life so much in the month give or take a few days that they knew each other. It felt as if she had know him all her life. Her past memories she fought so hard to repress daily faded into the background when he was near. She wasn't sure why this happened but it wasn't something she was particularly trying to find an answer for anyway. It was then and there that Haku decided that she would spend the rest of her life making sure she repaid Naruto for what he did for her, whether he wanted payment or not. Years later Haku would realizes that this was the day she began to fall head over heals for the soon to be named Demon Spawn of Konoha.

_**XXX(Timeclue21)XXX**_

Chapter five is in the books!

This one was weird because I wrote this ending piece with the Hokage first and then everything else and didn't quite know how I wanted wave to play out. But decided on this way and typed to my hearts content.

Stay tuned for next time!

With thanks,

Timeclue21


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